Parkash Singh Badal Urges PM Modi to Intervene, Scrap Farm Laws

This correspondence is the first since SAD ended its 24-year association with BJP over the contentious farm laws.

Former Chief Minister of Punjab and veteran leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Parkash Singh Badal on Monday, 7 December, sought PM Narendra Modi’s personal intervention in repealing the NDA government’s agriculture laws.

In a letter, written on the eve of the Bharat Bandh, the former Union Minister said “The ongoing crisis needs your immediate and undivided attention. I strongly urge you to show magnanimity.”

He added, “As a first step, the three acts in question that have pushed the country into deep turmoil...must be withdrawn, without making the farmers and their families endure any more suffering in this biting cold.”

Farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been protesting the Modi government’s agriculture laws for the past two weeks. Although several talks have taken place between the administration and farmer unions, none have yielded results.

This correspondence is the first since SAD ended its 24-year association with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the contentious farm laws.

Badal’s critique of the central government also included an appeal to stay committed to a federal structure of the government. He expressed the “need for a liberal, secular democratic approach to resolve all problems facing the country.”

“The farmers’ crisis is not the only instance where this inclusive approach to nation building has been ignored or abandoned,” he added.

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(With inputs from Hindustan Times and IANS)