Why the Shiromani Akali Dal quit the Union Cabinet over farm ordinances

President Ram Nath Kovind on September 18 accepted Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s resignation from PM Narendra Modi's Cabinet over the passing of controversial farm sector reform Bills.

She resigned protesting against three ordinances — The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. Initially, it was propagated by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. These Bills have now been tabled again in the Lok Sabha in an attempt to replace these.

Also Read: President accepts Harsimrat Kaur Badal's resignation

Although the bills seek to provide transparent trade for farmers’ produce outside notified farm mandis by facilitating farmers to enter into farming agreements with private firms before production for the sale of their agricultural output.

However, farmers across Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against three ordinances, claiming that this move will 'corporatise' the agriculture sector and further put them at a financial disadvantage.

What added fuel to the fire?

Now, that a major political turmoil has been ravaging the agrarian state of Punjab, with a state-level unit of the Akali Dal protesting along with the farmers, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who is also a rival of the Shiromani Akali Dal had dared Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Sukhbir Badal to quit the BJP-led NDA cabinet.

Therefore, with the Legislative Assembly polls in Punjab just 18 months away, and the 100-year-old party performing the poorest in the 2017 Assembly elections with a mere 15 seats out of 117, cannot afford to alienate its core constituency—the farmers. Therefore, such a political storm forced the SAD to ultimately pick one side.

Also Read: After Harsimrat Kaur Badal quits Modi govt, pressure mounts on Dushyant Chautala to resign

Earlier this week, Sukhbir Badal said, "Every Akali is a farmer, and every farmer is an Akali."

In her resignation letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that farmers are "synonymous" to her party and since SAD is "inspired by the egalitarian vision of the founder of Sikh faith, Shri Guru Nanak Dev who spent nearly 20 years working in his fields at Kartarpur Sahib as a humble farmer. It's enough to show what farmers mean to SAD."

Besides SAD, Congress itself has also opposed the bills. Several Congress MPs burnt copies of the Bills, and had staged a protest in the Parliament Complex and raised slogans against the BJP government.

This move by the SAD, is speculated to definitely add strains to the already frayed SAD-BJP ties, as recent reports of BJP mulling to side with a breakaway Akali group led by S S Dhindsa has been making rounds. Earlier this week in Parliament, Sukhbir Badal objected to the non-inclusion of Punjabi in the new languages Bill for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.