‘Will extend all possible help to you’: Sukhbir assures support to farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ call

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal

SHIROMANI AKALI Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Monday said the SAD Delhi unit as well as the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) will support the ‘Delhi Chalo’ call of farmer organisations for November 26-27 and extend all possible help to them. He spoke to SAD Delhi president Harmeet Singh Kalka and DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa in this connection.

Sukhbir said both the SAD Delhi unit and DSGMC would make arrangements for ‘langar’ for farmers who will assemble in Delhi on November 26-27, besides providing other essential items to them. He asked both Kalka and Sirsa to coordinate with the farmer groups in this regard. He said Akalis were ready to extend more specific help to farmer organizations as per their desire. “The SAD has a glorious heritage of participating in movements of farmers as well as the poor and underprivileged sections of society. We will continue to do so and fulfill any duty assigned to us,” he added.

He also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resolve the grievances of the farmers at the earliest. He said the Centre should scrap the three contentious legislations on agricultural marketing which had been rejected by the farming community. Simultaneously, the government should bring in legislation to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) and ensure assured government purchase on MSP, he added.

Dhindsa faction to join farmers’ march

Lehra MLA and Shiromani Akali Dal (Democratic) leader Parminder Singh Dhindsa on Monday appealed to party workers to join the farmers’ stir in New Delhi on November 26 and 27, “against the black agricultural laws forced by the Centre”.
Dhindsa said he, alongwith other senior party leaders, would join the march. “The Shiromani Akali Dal (Democratic) stands shoulder to shoulder with farmers in every struggle and assist their agitation till the agricultural laws were repealed,” he added.

He said that the farmers had never demanded such laws. “For whom have these laws been imposed? The purpose of these laws was to gradually exclude the farmers from government procurement and benefit those farmers who were dependent on the government and big traders. In particular, Punjab was targeted and with these farm laws, the central government had made a mockery of democracy,” he added.

“The farmers of Punjab had shown the way to farmers of the entire nation. We all have to take this fight forward by forgetting our differences. It is time to unite and intensify the struggle,” said Dhindsa, adding: “As November 26 is the country’s Constitution Day, we hope that we would get the right to speak on the occasion.”

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