Amidcontinued ruckus and unruly behaviour bythem in the House, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Fridayslammed the Akalis for their shocking conduct, including their shameful U-turnon the Farm Laws.
Asthey continued to disrupt the proceedings of the House despite his repeatedappeals, the Speaker suspended all the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLAs for therest of the Budget Session. Adjourning the House for 15 minutes, the Speakeralso asked the Marshals to remove the Akalis members from the House over theirdisorderly behaviour.
Amidcries of `Shame, Shame’ from the Treasury Benches, the Chief Minister, speakingon the farmers’ agitation during his speech in response to the discussion onthe Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s address in the Vidhan Sabha, said bothSukhbir Badal and Harsimrat Badal had brazenly cheated the people of Punjabwith their double-speak on the Farm Laws.
Pointingout that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president had initially accused hisgovernment of misleading the farmers, and claimed that the Farm Laws were infavour of the farmers, the Chief Minister said it was later that Sukhbircompletely and shamelessly backtracked to oppose the legislations. He read outfrom an extract of a letter of June 25,2020, in which Sukhbir had brazenly backed the Farm Laws, emphasising that“there is nothing in these Ordinances which is either against the Federalstructure or against the farmers.” In case the Government is unclear on this,then as and when the Bill is presented in Parliament, we will, at that time,assure the farmers of the country about MSP and Procurement from inside theParliament itself, Sukhbir had then stated in the said letter.
TheChief Minister further pointed out that the Akali president, terming it a clearenunciation of the opinion of SAD on the issue, had also claimed that theinterpretation of the Farm Laws suggesting that they will spell doom for MSPand Procurement was “wrong.” It was much later that the Akalis, when faced withthe wrath of the farmers and the threat of political oblivion over the issue,decided to renege on their earlier stand, Captain Amarinder pointed out.
Asfor Harsimrat, she had actually put out a video on Facebook categoricallysupporting the Farm Ordinances, which she called pro-farmer, said the ChiefMinister. In fact, the Akalis
supportedthe resolution moved by his government in the Vidhan Sabha against the centrallegislations and even went along to Governor’s House to submit the same beforetaking a U-turn, he added, as slogans of `Shame’ reverberated in the TreasuryBenches.
CaptainAmarinder recalled that union ministers Hardeep Puri and Som Prakash hadcategorically stated that Harsimrat was part of the cabinet meeting thatapproved the Farm Ordinances and raised no objection.
Callingthe Akali leaders as `double-faced’, the Chief Minister said “they saysomething here, and something there.” They had even made a mockery of the august House of the Punjab Vidhan Sabhawith their double-speak, he said, adding that “they keep changing their stanceand are now claiming to be pro-farmer.”