Stop 'shedding crocodile tears' over farmers' plight: Amarinder to SAD chief

In the circumstances, any promise or clarification on the part of the Union Agriculture Ministry will be meaningless unless they withdraw the ordinances to show that they truly had interests of farmers at heart, he said. Meanwhile, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal asked the CM to accompany him along with farmer organisations to take a blanket assurance on MSP and assured marketing from the Centre.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday asked SAD president Sukhbir Badal to “stop shedding crocodile tears” over the plight of farmers, whose very existence, he alleged was “threatened” by the ordinances cleared by the Centre with the support of his party. Singh said these ordinances were clearly the first step towards “elimination” of the MSP regime and the SAD, having given its full backing to them, has “lost” all locus standi to even “pretend” to care about farmers, whose condition had “deteriorated to abysmal levels” under their rule. Meanwhile, the Sukhbir hit back at the CM, saying his “repeated lies" about the end of the MSP regime had already been “exposed” by the Union government.

The Centre had recently promulgated three ordinances-- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinances. The CM's statement came a day after the SAD chief had offered to lead farmers' outfits to seek any clarification from Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar regarding the ordinances. Attacking the opposition leader, Amarinder Singh said Sukhbir should not forget that as a Union minister, his wife and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was part of the cabinet meeting that stamped its approval on the ordinances that will totally “destroy” Punjab's farming community.

Ridiculing the SAD president's offer, the CM said it was evident that Sukhbir was “totally disconnected” from the ground situation. The ordinances, that were completely against India's federal structure, were in line with the recommendations of the Shanta Kumar committee, which had also suggested the dismantling the minimum support regime, said the CM in a statement here.

Having implemented the recommendation on the ordinances, the inference was logical that the MSP elimination will soon follow, he said. “Sukhbir was conveniently choosing to ignore that in order to protect interests of the SAD, in particular his own and his wife's interests,” alleged the CM. No purpose will be solved now by Sukbir “pretending” about the farmers, whose interests his own party was instrumental in damaging by being an active supporter of the ordinances, alleged the CM.

“Left with no defence for SAD's anti-farmer and anti-Punjab actions, Sukhbir was not trying desperately to save face with his offer,” said the chief minister, adding that the SAD chief does not even seem to know that Punjab's farmer organisations had already protested against the ordinances, which they found to be “anti-farmer” and designed to pave the way for ending the MSP regime. In the circumstances, any promise or clarification on the part of the Union Agriculture Ministry will be meaningless unless they withdraw the ordinances to show that they truly had interests of farmers at heart, he said.

Meanwhile, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal asked the CM to accompany him along with farmer organisations to take a blanket assurance on MSP and assured marketing from the Centre. In a statement here, Sukhbir told the chief minister “your repeated lies about the end of the MSP regime have already been exposed by the Union government”. “The Centre has already announced that the MSP and assured marketing will remain in force in their present form. However, since you are choosing to disbelieve this assurance you should also accompany me along with farmer organizations to get a blanket assurance on this issue from the Union Agriculture minister,” said Badal.