Updated: September 18, 2020 9:09:14 pm
Harsimrat Kaur Badal (right) shares the stage with her husband, Sukhbir Singh Badal (center) and Narendra Modi at a joint election rally. (File photo)
HE resignation of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Union Cabinet on Agriculture Issue The bills have far-reaching consequences for the SAD-BJP in Punjab, raising a big question mark about the future of the alliance.
As The Indian Express reported on Thursday, Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s continuation in the Union cabinet was untenable, as the party had taken the position in Lok Sabha that it was against the Bills.
After submitting his resignation to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Harsimrat told reporters on Thursday: “I don’t want to be part of a government that introduced agricultural sector bills without addressing the arrests of farmers.”
However, Sukhbir, while speaking to reporters outside Parliament, while maintaining that SAD was ready to make any sacrifices for the farmers and their well-being, also said that the party’s future course of action and whether to remain in the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP (NDA) or it will not be decided at a party meeting later.
Explained: Why Three Farm Bills Pressured Akali Dal to Step Down from the Union Cabinet
SAD, one of the BJP’s oldest coalition partners, dating back to the days of Jana Sangh in the 1960s, has managed to keep the alliance intact despite many challenges in the past. However, the state’s volatile political climate over agriculture bills, coupled with the fact that SAD still faces backlash over incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib during his tenure, has brought ties between the two parties. under great stress.
With the party’s Jat Sikh vote bank, which is made up mostly of farmers, the SAD will face a difficult time for its loyal constituency should the BJP refuse to bow on the issue of agriculture bills. Coupled with the backlash the party still faces over Behbal Kalan’s shooting, relegation incidents, and the question of forgiveness for Dera Sacha Sauda’s boss, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Akalis would suffer a crippling blow to their image if they didn’t. an urgent course correction is made.
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SAD’s great elder and five-time state prime minister, Parkash Singh Badal, has always described SAD’s ties to BJP as ‘nau-maas da rishta’ or ties like nails and flesh. Privately, the BJP leaders have also had no qualms about saying that the BJP will not think of parting ways with the alliance until ‘vadde Badal sahib’ (the old Badal) was still around.
Parkash Singh Badal had not only held the alliance together, but also claimed time and again that the Akali-BJP ties were a guarantee of Sikh-Hindu friendship in the state and that being a border state that suffered due to terrorism for more than one of each. , those sensibilities were important to Punjab.
Read also | Three ordinances and a protest: why farmers in Haryana and Punjab are angry
Both parties managed to improvise their alliance and keep it intact despite the disparity of political alignments in neighboring Haryana and in the national capital. However, despite differences on issues such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, SYL channel, seat-sharing disputes, etc., the two sides never faced such a severe challenge as the current one.
Top BJP leaders, who did not want to make their comments public, confessed that, in their opinion, the ‘gathbandhan’ (alliance) was in grave danger in Punjab with this new development. “Harsimrat’s resignation does not bode well for the alliance. However, it is certain that the BJP will not be the party to leave this alliance if it ever happens, ”said a senior BJP leader.
However, senior BJP leaders admit they do not see how the alliance could remain intact in the 2022 Assembly polls if the BJP-led NDA government in the Center does not back down on the Bills issue.
Electoral compulsions and machinations had also played a role in the shaky relationship between the two of late, with senior Badal in the background and Sukhbir Badal assuming a more central role in leading the party. While, on the one hand, the SAD made inroads into the Hindu voter base in urban districts and gave tickets to a larger number of Hindu candidates, the BJP had recently announced party office holders for all 117 Assembly constituencies in the state. BJP leaders have long been making statements that the seat-sharing agreement between the two alliance partners should also be reworked and the number of seats for BJP should be increased from 23 to almost 50.
There has been unrest within the SAD when the then main party leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who had split from the Badals, received Padma Vibhushan by BJP in power in the center. It was seen as an open effort to confer a certain status on Dhindsa in an effort to sow discord within SAD.
Sure enough, Dhindsa soon spoke out openly against the Badal family and launched his own political team made up of dissident SAD leaders. This was seen by the SAD leadership as a vindication of their suspicion of the BJP’s motives.
The SAD-BJP conflict is a boon to the ruling Congress, as well as the beleaguered AAP in Punjab. While Congress and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has come under fire from within their ranks, and by the AAP for inaction in the desecration and firing of Behbal Kalan, he has now used agricultural ordinances and protesting the Farmers related to the bill for their benefit as a lifesaver.
SAD has also come under sustained attack by the AAP on the issue, with the latter feeling an opportunity to appeal to the sensitivity of farmers’ organizations and make important progress ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections. and rejuvenate your dwindling fortune.
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