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.
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