Chandigarh, December 03, 2020: In a big blow to Centre, former Punjab CM and Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal has decided to return his Padma Vibhushan award and has written about the same to the President of India. In his letter, Parkash Singh Badal has said that the decision has been taken in protest against “the betrayal of the farmers by the Government of India’s and against the shocking indifference and contempt with which the Centre is treating the ongoing peaceful and democratic agitation of the farmers against the three farm Acts.”
The senior Badal said in his letter.“I am who I am because of the people, especially the common farmer. Today when he has lost more than his honour, I see no point in holding on to the Padma Vibhushan honour”. He continued, “When the country honoured me with Padma Vibhushan, I knew that it was only in acknowledgment of my commitment to the people in which the farmers featured most prominently. I owe it to them.”
Lashing out at the Narendra Modi-led Central government, Badal listed his reasons for feeling “hurt and betrayed” by the government’s attitude and actions against the farmers. “When the Government of India had brought the Ordinances, assurances were given that the farmers’ apprehensions on these Ordinances would be addressed to their satisfaction while bringing the relevant Bills and subsequently the Acts. Trusting these assurances, I even appealed to the farmers to believe the Government’s word. But I was shocked when the Government simply went back on its word,” he said.
Badal claimed that while “corporate loans worth lakhs of crores are waived off, no one has ever thought of even subsiding the farm debts”. Badal described the farm laws as “the Black Laws” and said that it adds to the woes of the farmers and serve as “the last nail in the coffin of the country’s annadata.” The former Chief Minister also noted that he had been deeply pained to see “conspiracies and vicious propaganda unleashed to paint this peaceful struggle as anti-national.”
READ THE LETTER
