CAPT TERMS BADALS ROOT CAUSE OF FARMERS’ PROBLEM

CHANDIGARH : Ridiculing the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) decision to set up a panel to hold talks with the state’s farmers, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday said no overtures could absolve the Badals of their responsibility in thrusting the draconian and undemocratic agri laws on the farming community.

Considering that the Badals themselves were at the root of the problem, and the co-conspirators of the Centre’s anti-farmer agenda, the Akalis neither deserve nor can expect any understanding or forgiveness from the farmers, said the CM.

The Akalis’ apathy towards the farmers was evident from the fact that even now, instead of understanding and relating with their pain, Sukhbir was refusing to recognise the protestors as farmers and was insulting them by alleging that they owed allegiance to other political parties, including the Congress, said Amarinder.

Amarinder termed Sukhbir Badal’s announcement of suspension of the party’s election outreach programme and formation of the panel to engage with the farmers as a desperate measure to woo Punjab’s voters ahead of the 2022 assembly polls.

“But the farmers, and the people of Punjab are not fools, and your attempts to befool them with lies will backfire on you,” he warned the SAD president.

He added that the state had completely and unequivocally rejected the Akalis, who had first looted them for 10 years in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party and then cruelly worked hand in glove with them to impose the farm Laws on the farmers.