Shiromani Akali Dal toughens stance, to vote against farm bills in Rajya Sabha

JALANDHAR: After BJP did not give any leeway to Shiromani Akali Dal on the issue of farm bills despite SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal’s last ditch attempts on Monday and his vote against the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 in Lok Sabha, the party’s Rajya Sabha members too will vote against the three bills.
Sukhbir, the only SAD MP in Lok Sabha apart from his wife, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, is also set to vote against the other two bills.
SAD Rajya Sabha chief whip Naresh Gujral has issued the “three-line whip” for party members to oppose Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill.
SAD core committee to decide next course of action, says Chandumajra
SAD had three RS members but Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was expelled from the party. When contacted, Dhindsa said he had written to the RS chairman that he should be treated as an independent member. “I shall oppose all the three bills as they are against the interests of the farmers. I have been opposing these bills already, only the Badals woke up late to the reality after facing heat from farmers,” he said.
Defending the party’s decision to vote against the three bills, SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra said since the BJP central leadership ‘unfortunately’ did not take cognisance of the reservations brought to their notice by the party, it was forced to vote against the farm ordinances in Parliament.
Asked whether SAD could also decide on breaking the alliance with BJP, he replied, “There is no such discussion till now. It is for the core committee to decide what should be the party’s line on the issue.”
He said the SAD action should be seen from the prism of the welfare of farmers of Punjab and the “party will soon hold a meeting of its core committee to consider the next course of action”.
There is growing apprehension among leaders and cadres of both the BJP and SAD about the fate of the alliance or at least the level of relationship even as they are conscious about their Hindu-Sikh unity plank.
Enquiries from quite a few local SAD leaders revealed that they are happy that their party stood against the bills when there is strong sentiment among farmers against these bills. “We can now freely move among farmers and in villages otherwise it would have been very difficult even to move out as the popular perception is against the bills,” said a local SAD leader, who is a farmer.
“The alliance remains or not or there is some shift in the arrangement without breaking the alliance, we are happy that party has saved itself from a big disaster of losing its support base among farmers. Biggest issue is with the local leaders who face farmers daily. Even facing our own workers would have been very difficult in case the party supported the bills,” said another Akali leader.
At the same time, BJP leaders are also not sure about the fate of the alliance or the arrangement in Punjab. However, a common refrain among BJP leaders TOI spoke to is that for the first time there is a feeling that the alliance is facing its toughest phase of relationship. “This is one rare issue where our positions are diametrically opposite after SAD has joined the camp which terms the farm bills anti-farmer and we are calling it a great pro-farmer step,” said a senior BJP leader.
A former BJP MLA revealed that in a virtual meeting taken by BJP president J P Nadda with senior party leaders from Punjab he asked them to take and promote Sikhs, especially Jat Sikhs and Dalits in the party. “We were asked to make special efforts to make inroads in villages,” said the former MLA.
However, BJP leaders are also apprehensive that with such overwhelming sentiment against the farm bills they would find it difficult to expand among farmers and Sikhs in villages. “This issue can become an impediment when strong perception has been built against them which even forced the SAD leaders to take U-turn on the issue despite defending it earlier,” said another former MLA adding, “If farmers have not heard SAD leaders who are from among them will they heed to our arguments.”
(With inputs from Sanjeev Verma in Chandigarh)