Sukhbir Singh Badal promises new farm laws the way his party did on river waters act in 2007, only to forget

 

Sukhbir Singh Badal promises new farm laws the way his party did on Section 5 of river waters Act

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

 

Chandigarh: Every political party has the right to strategise its tactical and line as such, there is nothing wrong in the rejection of the farm bills by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal today at a media briefing after the core committee meeting of his party. His party had supported Punjab amendment bills 48 hours earlier facilitating unanimous adoption of the same in the Assembly. These bills were piloted by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. Sukhbir today attacked the Punjab amendment bills as betrayal with the state.

However, he repeated history by ending up his press conference  with the promise to enact new laws and declare the entire state as market immediately after coming into power in 2022 and the decision regarding which would be taken at the very first cabinet meeting.

The press release issued after the press conference states, “We will totally block and reject the implementation Modi’s anti-farmer Acts in Punjab, declare the entire state a Principal Market Area and repeal the APMC  2017 enacted by Amarinder”. No mention of ‘first cabinet meeting’ promise here.

Sukhbir Badal’s total thrust was on Punjab bills.

One has to go back to 2004 when then Shiromani Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal addressed a press conference within weeks of the unanimous adoption of Punjab Termination of  Agreements Act that nullified all earlier awards and awards relating to the apportionment of Punjab river waters with the neighbouring states. This extreme step was taken to block the resumption of the construction of the Satluj Yamuna Link Canal to carry waters to Haryana under the Rajiv – Longowal Accord that is also known as the Punjab Accord. It may be mentioned here that this canal has always been constructed under the Akali governments though its foundation was laid by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 8, 1982 at Kapoori in Patiala district when Punjab had a Congress government. This land had earlier been acquired by the Badal government.

Section 5 in the termination act provides the first ever statutory protection to the waters already flowing to Haryana and Rajasthan. It was supported by the Shiromani Akali Dal in the Assembly. Badal promised at that press conference to revoke this clause after coming into power. Later, he went a step ahead stressing that the decision to this effect would be taken at the very first cabinet meeting and the Act amended in the very first session of the Assembly.

The 2007 manifesto of the Shiromani Akali Dal states on page 31: “Unfortunately, successive Congress governments at the centre and in the state have systematically violated  the Riparian Principle. Captain Amarinder Singh, who had publicly hailed the late Mrs Indira Gandhi for  starting the digging operations of the SYL Canal  at Kapoori in 1982, has now delivered blow to state’s interests by giving a legal guarantee to the flow of Punjab’s river waters to Haryana and Rajasthan under Clause 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreements act. This Clause strikes at the very root of the Riparian principle, completely contradicting Punjab’s stand that as Punjab and Haryana are non-Riparian states, they have no right to have share in Punjab’s river waters. The SAD-BJP government will tale political, legal and constitutional steps to redress this grievous wrong done to the people of the state”.

Surprisingly, this promise was missing in the Punjabi version of the manifesto.

Badal was the chief minister for two terms from 2007-2017. This promise was never recalled.

Now Sukhbir Singh Badal has made a similar promise to undo the farm acts at the very first meeting after coming into  power.

Interestingly, the farmers organisations welcomed the state bills yesterday describing them as a “big achievement” of their agitation.  At the bfiefing after the meeting of the farmers organisations, the leaders said, “It has happened for the first time that a special session of the Assembly was called and bills were passed under pressure from farmers. It has marked the beginning of a big political movement and it could spread to other states too”.

Sukhbir today rejected these bills as betrayal with the farmers.

Obviously, the view expressed yesterday by the farmers organisations leading the agitation and Sukhbir Singh Badal are divergent.

It may be mentioned that at the time when the Badal family was supporting the farm ordinances, Sukhbir had alleged that the farmer organisations were being misled by Capt Amarinder Singh.

Do the farmers continue to be misled?

More important dimension is: Will this first meeting promised by Sukhbir Singh Badal ever materialize this time unlike the 2007-2017 period?

And all the more important: The term ‘sacrifice’ stands redefined by Sukhbir Singh Badal who has been heading this party with glorious history of struggles and sacrifice since 2008. Now the resignation from ministry is ‘sacrifice’. More on this new definition later.