CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday alleged that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was “the main architect” of the three central farm laws. These legislations were the exact replicas of the contract farming law introduced by the SAD-BJP government in Punjab assembly in 2013, claimed the cricketer-turned-politician.
Hitting back, the SAD asked Sidhu not to try to befool people and challenged him to repeal the amendments made in the APMC Act by the Congress government in 2017, if he was really serious about helping the cause of the farming community.
Sidhu alleged that former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was the “Niti Nirmata” (policymaker) of these farm laws. The Punjab Contract Farming Act passed in the assembly in 2013 when Badal Senior was the CM, is the soul of the agri laws” he claimed, adding that nowhere in the state Act allowed corporates to buy crops below MSP in order to exploit the farmers.
“The Centre’s farm laws are a photostat copy of the Act brought by the Badals. Be it the dispute over settlement, farm services, sale of agriculture produce, most clauses are as they were provided to the BJP by the SAD when it was part of the NDA,” Sidhu said. He played videos of Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal first praising and later opposing the legislations.
Amarinder attacks Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh said no Akali leader, especially former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, had the moral right to speak on the crisis triggered by the farm laws. Reacting to Harsimrat’s remark that he was speaking the language of the BJP, Singh said it was an attempt to cover up her and her party’s failure.