Amarinder Singh Dares SAD To Quit Centre Over Farm Ordinances
Amarinder Singh termed Mr Badal's sudden "U-turn" on the farm ordinances as a "cheap gimmick to hoodwink the farming community".
by Press Trust of India
Chandigarh:
A day after the SAD's "climb-down" on the issue of farm ordinances, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday dared opposition party chief, Sukhbir Singh Badal, to quit the BJP-led Centre to prove his party's sincerity in the matter.
He also termed Mr Badal's sudden "U-turn" on the farm ordinances as a "cheap gimmick to hoodwink the farming community".
The SAD on Saturday had appealed to the BJP-led Centre not to enact laws on the three farm ordinances until "all reservations" expressed by farmers are "duly addressed."
The SAD's appeal to the Union government for not tabling the ordinances in Parliament came even as the party had consistently maintained that the Centre had assured that these ordinances would have no bearing on the existing crop procurement policy.
The CM on Sunday said as a member of the ruling alliance at the Centre, the Shiromani Akali Dal was party to the ordinances and had supported them unconditionally.
In a statement here, Mr Singh slammed Mr Badal over his party's "brazen double standards" on the issue and asked if the Akali leader was ready to vote against the ordinances in Parliament as and when the central government seeks to enact laws on them.
He also termed as "total hogwash" the SAD's so-called appeal to the Union government not to present the three ordinances for approval in Parliament until all reservations expressed by farmer organisations were addressed.
The CM recalled Mr Badal's assertion during an all-party meet convened by him on the issue in June that the central government had assured the SAD that there would be no tinkering with the minimum support price.
It is more than obvious now that the SAD president had "lied" then in a deliberate bid to "mislead" farmers, he said, adding given his track record, nothing that Mr Badal was saying now on the issue could be believed.
The "double standards" of the Akalis have become a rule rather than the exception, said the CM, pointing to SAD's stance on the Citizenship Amendment Act, among other major issues concerning the state.