Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced says that they broke their 24-year-old alliance with BJP over the three agri-marketing bills in Parliament.
“Today we have decided to part ways with the NDA,” Akali Dal President and former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said.
The alliance between SAD and BJP, formed in 1996 after parliamentary elections.
The party were continuously protesting against farm bills.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, made his public appearance as they broke alliance with the BJP-led NDA last night. They said that nation should understand and empathies with farmers in view of their situation.
“We are ready to join or follow any struggle in the overall interests of the farmers, farm labour, Arhtiyas and other farm produce traders,” the SAD president said.
“Anything like the new farm bills of the Government of India, which increases the uncertainty over the fate of the farmers’ produce, can have disastrous implications not only for the economy but also for social stability in the country. Farmers’ economic plight affects the entire economy. Therefore, what we are fighting for is to protect the country’s wider national interests”, it added.
“We must not flinch from the ideals of keeping our struggle for people’s rights absolutely peaceful and democratic. I must caution against attempts to defame our struggle by disturbing peace but that should only strengthen our resolve to safeguard the age-old values of Punjabi fraternity and the path of peaceful democratic struggle,” said Badal.
“What happened in the Rajya Sabha everybody knows that.. Although we were part of the government, but Harsimrat Kaur Badal quit from the post of minister against the bills,” Badal said.
Badal accused the central government of completely ignoring the farmers and pushing the farm bill with no opposition in Parliament.
