Shiromani Akali Dal’s stand on farm laws can prove to be the basis for a new alliance of various regional parties at the national level. This hint came during a virtual press conference of senior Akali leader and MLA Bikram Singh Majithia on Friday. Replying to a question, Majithia said that many regional parties had appreciated and welcomed the SAD’s stand on the bills, which are now laws. He said, “Now talks with these regional parties will start at some stage. This is the need of hour, as all parties opposing these bills will have to raise their voice collectively.
So, all 18 regional parties from north to south, which are against these bills, along with farmers and farmer organisations, should come together.” Majithia also condemned the police lathicharge on Akali workers on Thursday saying that they had assembled peacefully on the outskirts of the city to protest against the injustice done to farmers, even as he announced that it would bring more protests to Chandigarh besides leading a protest to Delhi also. He said that it seemed the Centre and Punjab government had played a fixed match on Thursday with the intention of derailing the peaceful protests.
“If the centre feels it can silence us by conducting a brutal lathi charge against us which injured senior leaders and workers it has still not understood the deep sense of anguish of the farmers of Punjab whose virtual existence is in question. We will continue to agitate to protect the rights of farmers and will not be cowed down by such highhandedness.” To a query, he said before coming to Punjab, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should explain his “questionable conduct” on three agricultural bills in parliament.
He said it was too much of a coincidence that Rahul and Congress President Sonia Gandhi left for the United States for a routine medical checkup one day before tabling of the agricultural bills in parliament and returned back on the day they were passed.