New Delhi: Akali Dal’s only Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet today as her party faced heat from farmers over its initial support to ally BJP’s farm sector bills.
The minister, who was part of the cabinet meet that cleared the bills, stepped down shortly before the voting in Lok Sabha, tweeting that she was “Proud to stand with farmers as their daughter & sister”.
Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal said they would support the government from outside but oppose “anti-farmer policies”.
The bills — which the BJP claims is big ticket reform in the agri sector — have hugely upset the farmers of Punjab and Haryana, who have been holding protests for weeks. The government said the bills, whch would replace the three ordinances issued in June, will help farmers across the country get a better market and price for their produce.
In his speech during a discussion on two of the bills — the Produce Trade and Commerce and the Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill — Sukhbir Singh Badal said the proposed laws will “destroy” the 50 years of hard work done by successive Punjab governments to build the farm sector.