SAD, AAP to boycott President’s address

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party have decided to boycott President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint session of Parliament on the opening day of the budget session on Friday in support of the protesting farmers’ demand for repeal of the three farm laws.

Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann said the party MPS will boycott the presidential address and stage a protest in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament to oppose the Centre’s agriculture reform Acts. “President’s speech is written by the government and they will only praise the three laws. In his address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day also, the President had done the same,” he said. Mann is the lone MP of AAP from Punjab.

The Sangrur MP said the AAP had been opposing the three passed by the BJP government from day one from Parliament to the streets. He also accused the Centre of attempting to scuttle the agitation. “Those who indulged in violence in Delhi on Tuesday were not associated with the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha. We condemn the violence, but the Union home minister (Amit Shah) should give an answer how two riots had taken place in the national capital in one year and the police remained a mute spectator,” he said, adding that the party was in favour of peaceful protest.

SAD leaders — Rajya Sabha members Balwinder Bhundar and Naresh Gujral besides ex-lok Sabha MP Prem Singh Chandumajra in a joint statement said that the central government is unmoved by the suffering of the farmer community. SAD has two members in the Lok Sabha - Sukhbir and Harsimrat Kaur Badal - and Bhundar and Gujral in the upper house.