Stop playing games with farmers: Shiromani Akali Dal to Centre

The Shiromani Akali Dal on Wednesday asked the BJP-led Centre to “stop playing games” with innocent farmers and withdraw the three farm laws "immediately and unconditionally".

The SAD, which had pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance amid the consistent digs at it by the Congress after the enactment of the laws, also backed the farmers’ rejection of the Centre’s proposal on these laws.

“These proposals were nothing but delaying and diversionary tactics and tricks which have rightly been rejected by the farmers,” it said. "We are with the farmers in everything and in every way," it added.

Also read: Centre ready to amend but won't repeal farm laws

Farmer leaders on Wednesday rejected a government proposal on the three contentious agriculture-marketing laws and said they would intensify their agitation against the legislations with a nationwide protest on December 14.

In a statement here, senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia said there was nothing new in these proposals.

"These are the same proposals which had been rejected by the SAD before quitting the government and the NDA to stand with farmers,” he said.

"It is so tragic that the country's 'annadata', the farmers, are battling cruel and biting cold along with their family members ranging from barely 14-day-old infants to elders in their late eighties and nineties," said the Akali leader.

Farmers' protest live updates on DH

He urged the government to "abandon its stubborn refusal to listen to farmers and announce an unqualified and unconditional acceptance of their demands".

“The government says the farm laws are meant for farmers' welfare. If the farmers don't want these, it is absolutely unreasonable, wrong and undemocratic to thrust these laws upon them," said the former minister.

The senior Akali leader expressed grave concern over how "our country's soft and civilised image is taking a huge beating with the government's repressive handling of a peaceful stir”. “What an irony that people and institutions from all over the world, including the UN, have felt deeply touched and extended solidarity with our brave but beleaguered farmers while our own elected government continues to be utterly callous and insensitive to their sufferings," alleged Majithia.

“The unspeakable miseries, which the country's breadwinners are braving, present a touching human spectacle that can move even the most heartless enemy,” he said. The Akali leader alleged that the government's “apathy” towards its people and its "love and preference for the rich corporates" have brought back memories of the "colonial rulers".

"The pity is greater because the rulers today are not foreigners but our own elected representatives. People elected them in the hope that they would address their problems as does a parent in a family. Unfortunately, the parent has turned cruelly and heartlessly against its own children," he alleged.