Saturday, December 5, 2020

Parkash Singh Badal Returns Padma Vibhushan Award in Protest Against Farm Laws





Parkash Singh Badal, former Union Minister and five-time Chief Minister of Punjab ,Returns Padma Vibhushan Award (second-highest civilian award of India ) in Protest Against three contentious farm laws promulgated by BJP-led Union government, terming the laws as “the betrayal of the farmers by the Government of India”. 

He said his protest is also against the “shocking indifference and contempt with which the government is treating the ongoing peaceful and democratic agitation of the farmers against the three farm Acts”.

“Who am I is because of the people, especially the common farmer. Today, when I have lost more than my honour, I see no reason behind holding on to the award”, said the Akali stalwart in his letter to the president Ram Nath Kovind. 

Badal described the betrayal of the farmers by the government as “bolts from the blue on the already beleaguered peasantry of the country” adding that “farmer finds himself waging  bitter struggles in severe cold  just to secure his fundamental right to live”.  

In a letter written in a deeply emotional and painful strain and e-mailed to the President this morning, Badal said, “After Panthik ideals of peace and communal harmony, farmers have been my second religious passion.  Everything I have, everything I take pride in, every moment of glory or every office of public service that has been bestowed on me during my long public career has been purely because of my commitment to these ideals in which farmers have remained at the center of everything”. 

“When the country honoured me with Padma Vibhushan, I knew that it was only in acknowledgement of my commitment to the people in which the farmers featured most prominently. I owe it to them,” he said.

In his letter to the President, 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.”

https://www.sikh24.com/2020/12/03/breaking-parkash-badal-returns-padma-vibhushan-award-in-protest-against-farm-laws/#

Dr. Gurdeep Kaur
Associate Professor
Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College
University of Delhi

 

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