GOVT LINKING FARMERS’ STIR WITH KHALISTANIS, SAYS HARSIMRAT

NEW DELHI: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday accused the government of committing atrocities on farmers agitating against the three agricultural laws at Delhi’s borders and criticised it for linking the peasants’ movement with terrorists and Khalistanis.

Party MP and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said farmers are braving the cold and waiting at Delhi’s borders but the government’s “eyes and ears are shut”.

“On Constitution Day (November 26), lathis and tear gas rained on unarmed farmers,” she alleged participating the debate on the motion to thank the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget session.

The Akali Dal was part of the ruling NDA till it quit the alliance in September 2020 in protest against the three laws. Subsequently, Badal, who was a minister in the Narendra Modi government since 2014, resigned from her post.

Waving posters and photos of farmers, who died during the agitation, she said no sympathetic word has come from the government for them.

“I was in the government for six years but when it became inhuman, what is the point of staying in such a government. Even when these (agriculture) ordinances were brought in, I told the cabinet to consult more people. I was told that they will do that when the ordinances become law,” she said.

“They gave us laws and told us to take them to farmers. When we did, we understood the farmers’ apprehensions. We gave a letter to the agriculture minister,” the former Union minister said.