Harsimrat Badal Spoke In Favour Of 'Pro Farmer Ordinances' Days Before Resigning, Said Amarinder Singh Was Doing Drama

Days after Sukhbir Badal announced the exit of Shiromani Akali Dal from the National Democratic Alliance government, Congress in charge of Punjab and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat has questioned the Badals' hypocrisy.

SAD recently quit NDA over farm bills after Harsimrat Badal resigned from the cabinet post.

Rawat, this report says, has cited videos available on the Facebook page of SAD leader and ex-union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to question "her hypocrisy".

Here is why Rawat is questioning the Badals. Ten days before Badal resigned from her Cabinet post, she had issued a video message. The report says that the video message came up on 7 September.

In the video, she is in favour of the moves from the Centre. She terms them as "pro farmer ordinances".

She also said that no other state was witnessing protests over the ordinances from the Centre. She added that Congress was misleading the farmers.

She added that Congress was sowing the seeds of doubt in the minds of the farmers. She even called the Aam Aadmi Party the "B Team" of Congress and said that the two were misleading farmers.

Here is what could be making Rawat upset. Badal reportedly said that Punjab CM Amarinder Singh was targeting the Centre "on the laws to deflect attention from his failures."

She has been quoted as saying: “Amarinder Singh is lying and doing drama. He himself brought an Act in 2017 but when the Centre implements the same things, he calls a special session to spread rumours and says that Tomar’s written assurances had no value.”

Interestingly, she speaks in the video issued, on Union agriculture minister NS Tomar's letter to SAD president Sukhbir Badal. She mentions the letter saying in writing that "MSP will continue and so will public procurement through mandis."

On her resignation, Badal had said: "I didn't gain anything from my resignation, I've only lost. But it brought farmers' issues to the centre stage. Parliament session had to be cut short by a week due to nationwide protests against farm bills."

The Badals have said that SAD pulled out of the BJP-led NDA alliance owing to the centre’s refusal "to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers crops on MSP & its continued insensitivity to Punjabi & Sikh issues".

In the video, Badal also mentions SAD senior leader Prakash Singh Badal's message in a video issued by him, and his stand on the "pro farmer ordinances".