Chandigarh, Sep 26 (UNI) Anguished over the passing of Farm Bills in Parliament, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday pulled out itself from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Akali Dal, one of BJP's oldest ally, had been protesting over the three contentious Farm Bills, which were passed in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, amid ruckus.
Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a party statement here, said that the decision to quit the NDA was taken 'because of the Centre's stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect the assured marketing of farmers' crops on MSP and it's continued insensitivity to Punjabi and Sikh issues, like excluding Punjabi as official language in Jammu and Kashmir'.
'No alliance or ministry is more important than the 'annadaata'. We are with the kisan and khet mazdoor from Day 1. This is why, we opposed the three Farm Bills and withdrew from the NDA government. We will now agitate to get the Bills revoked and strive to make MSP a statutory right of farmers,' SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had said on Friday.
Earlier on September 17, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned from the Union Cabinet, registering her protest against the government. She said she was 'proud to stand with farmers as their daughter & sister'.
Parliament, in it's recently-concluded Monsoon Session, had passed three Bills, which were not taken in good taste by the farmers across the country, especially from Punjab and Haryana.
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