No going back on agri-legislations, say BJP leaders as they downplay differences with Akali Dal

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 18

Seeking to downplay their differences with the Akali Dal, BJP leaders say “they are and will continue to talk” to their oldest remaining ally to “address its concerns” regarding the three contentious agriculture-legislations to protest, against which Bathinda MP and Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday tendered her resignation from the Narendra Modi government.

“All outstanding issues will be taken up,” they said, adding that a senior leader was also expected to meet Harsimrat Kaur to persuade her to reconsider the decision.

While there is no threat to the Narendra Modi government, it is only perceptions that the party needs to be bothered about.

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This apart, a large section of BJP’s Punjab leaders have been wanting to strike alone in the state, perhaps now they will have a chance.

“The PM always wanted to remove the middlemen culture from the system. There is no going back (on the three legislations),” they say.

His very strong words on Thursday, cautioning “farmers against vested interests” (which observers read as a message for both the Congress and the Akalis in Punjab) and the SAD not walking out of the NDA and only quitting the government for now, BJP leaders say their ally has inadvertently “put in open its uncertainties and apprehensions regarding its future” in Punjab.

Perhaps, the BJP now has a chance to break free of obligations of standing with the three-decades-old ally which has “now become a liability”, observers also conform.

Notably, hailing the passage of three farm sector bills in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister described these proposed legislations as historic and asserted that they would rid farmers and the farm sector of middlemen and other bottlenecks.

With the Akalis joining the opposition in protesting these bills, Modi asserted that many forces were trying to “mislead” farmers and assured the farming community that the minimum support price (MSP) and government procurement of their produce would continue along with a lot of other options for them.

So far as the Akalis are concerned, its leaders said:” For the time being, we are in NDA. In the next couple of days, our core committee will meet and decide. However, when our forces are eyeball to eyeball with the PLA, and Pak wants to ferment trouble in the border State of Punjab, Akalis will not do anything that weakens the government.”

However, the BJP strongly believes that reforms will provide new opportunities for farmers to sell their produce and will lead to increased profits for them.

Prime Minister Modi also urged farmers and those associated with the agriculture sector to listen to Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s reply to the discussion on these bills. Many forces were trying to mislead farmers, he added while assuring them of the benefits of these reforms.

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