Akali Dal should withdraw its minister from Modi cabinet on land bill: Bajwa

Chandigarh,The Punjab Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa today called upon the Shiromani Akali Dal to withdraw Food Processing Minister Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal in case the party was really serious in confronting the Narendra Modi government on the issue of amendment to the land acquisition act and end its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“You can’t sail in two boats. Going by the past record, the Akali Dal has the habit of backtracking from its hyperbolic statements. In this context, I will like to remind Mr Parkash Singh Badal about the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttrakhand when Uttar Pradesh was to be bifurcated during the NDA regime earlier. The Akali Dal had stoutly opposed it. However, the Akali Dal continued in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government even after this demand was rejected and the party did not lodge even a symbolic protest”, he said.

He charged the Akali Dal with trying to befool the people on this issue as the stand taken by the party taken at its core committee meeting yesterday did not reflect its seriousness. The party did not divulge its course of action in case the Modi government ignored its allies. He pointed out that on several issues relating to Punjab, the BJP government had just ignored Badal. In this regard, he referred to the exclusion of Punjab from the list of debt stressed states. It was ironical that Badal was now not even protesting while all the years during the UPA regime, his refrain had been discrimination to Punjab despite the fact that this state benefitted the most during those years and the same had been corroborated by none else but the present Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley.

He said it was the UPA which had enacted this pro-farmer legislation which was proposed to be diluted by the Modi government in which the Akali Dal was a partner. Mr Badal claimed himself to be the champion of the farmers. Mr Bajwa challenged Mr Badal to come forward and give categoric assurance to the people that his party would break its alliance with the BJP on this issue rather than trying to mislead them.