‘Anti-farmer’: SAD team meets President Kovind, requests him not to sign farm bills passed by Parliament

A delegation of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) met President Ram Nath Kovid on Monday requesting him to not give his nod to the farm bills passed by the Rajya Sabha (or Upper House of Parliament) on Sunday.

These bills have already been passed by the Lok Sabha and await President’s nod before becoming law.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Kovind, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the party’s delegation requested the President to not sign on the “anti-farmer” bills that were “forcefully” passed in the Rajya Sabha. “We requested him to send back the bills to Parliament,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Badal had on Saturday said that there can be no talks with the Centre until the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 are taken back.

On Sunday, he said that the passage of bills marked a “sad day” for democracy and millions in the country.

“Urging President of India not to sign the Bills on farm issues and return them to #Parliament for reconsideration. Please intervene on behalf of farmers, labourers, arhtiyas, mandi labour and Dalits, or they will never forgive us,” the SAD leader had said in a statement on Twitter shortly after Rajya Sabha passed two of the three bills.

“Democracy means consensus, not majority oppression,” he added.

Also, in line with her party’s dissent over the bills, SAD leader and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned from her post on Thursday following the passage of bills in the Lok Sabha.

Apart from SAD, which is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government, 12 Opposition parties have also sought time to meet Kovind over the agri bills cleared by the Rajya Sabha.

According to news agency PTI, leaders of various political parties including the Congress, the Left parties, NCP, DMK, SP, Trinamool Congress and the RJD have in a memorandum to the President sought his intervention in the matter and asked him not to sign the bills, which will become a law after the President grants his assent to them.