Former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal at a rally in Bathinda. The Akali Dal is a key ally of the NDA. (File/PTI)

With Union minister Harsimrat Badal resigning from the Cabinet, the Shiromani Akali Dal, a long-term alliance partner of the BJP, has taken an unusually strong stand against the agriculture 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 — promulgated by the NDA government, which has now tabled Bills in Lok Sabha to replace the ordinances.

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal has said the party was never consulted on the ordinances, and that Harsimrat , his wife, had told the government about farmers’ reservations. Farmers in Haryana and Punjab, where SAD is based, have been agitating against the ordinances. The party has voted against the Bills.

Less than a month ago, the Akalis had been stoutly defending the ordinances. Just before a one-day Punjab Assembly session on August 28, Sukhbir Badal had released a letter from Union Agriculture Minister Narender Singh Tomar saying the practice of procuring grains through minimum support price (MSP) will remain unchanged. He had even accused Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of misleading farmers. Now the two are speaking in one voice against the ordinances.

What explains the Akalis’ opposition?

Peasantry forms the backbone of the Akali Dal vote-bank in Punjab. Earlier this week, Sukhbir Badal summed it up when he said, “Every Akali is a farmer, and every farmer is an Akali.”

The farmers are fuming. Farmers unions across the state have also sunk their political differences to unite against the ordinances. Villagers in the Malwa belt have warned they will not let any leader who supports the ordinances enter their villages.

Farmers unions across the state have also sunk their political differences to unite against the ordinances. In pic: Protests from Amritsar (PTI)

The 100-year-old party, which had its poorest ever showing in the 2017 Assembly elections with a mere 15 seats out of 117, cannot risk alienating its core constituency. Political analysts say it’s a question of survival for the party that enjoyed two successive terms from 2007 before being routed in 2017.

The SAD-BJP alliance could secure only 15% of the seats while the Congress recorded its most emphatic win since 1957.

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Dr Parmod Kumar from the Institute of Development Communication, a think tank, said the farmers’ agitation has come as godsend for the Akalis. “They were in the wilderness and no one thought they would ever oppose the BJP. This agitation has given them a new lease of life. Their outright support for the farmers could also help them dilute the anger against incidents of sacrilege during the Akali tenure in 2015.”

What are the stakes involved?

Farmers fear that they will no longer get paid at MSP for their food grains, while commission agents fear that they will lose their commission. According to a Punjab Agricultural University study, there are over 12 lakh farming families in Punjab and around 28,000 registered commission agents.

Farmers groups Punjab and Haryana had hit the streets opposing a number of farm ordinances.

A large part of the agrarian state’s economy rests on funds infused by central procurement agencies such as Food Corporation of India (FCI). A lion’s share of wheat and rice grown in Punjab is procured by or for FCI. In the 2019-2020 rabi marketing season, Punjab supplied 129.1 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of the 341.3 LMT wheat procured for the central pool. In 2018-19, it contributed 13.3 LMT of rice to the total 443.3 LMT in the central pool.

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But after these ordinances, protesters fear that the FCI will no longer be able to procure from the state mandis, which will rob the middleman/commission agent/arhatiya of his 2.5% commission. The state itself will lose the 6% commission it used to charge from the procurement agency.

“The ordinances that allow farmers to sell their produce in the open market deal a blow to the farmers, mainly Jats, the commission agents, who are largely urban Hindus, and landless labourers,” said Parmod Kumar.

How does it impact the BJP and its ties with the Akali Dal?

It will strain the ties that have been frayed for a while amid speculations that BJP may be flirting with a breakaway Akali group led by Rajya Sabha MP SS Dhindsa, whom the Modi Government had awarded Padma Bhushan. Besides, Sukhbir hasn’t demonstrated the persuasive powers of his father and five-time CM Parkash S Badal, who held the alliance together through thick and thin.

But the bills will also hurt BJP’s largely urban vote bank, which includes the commission agents, and render it a weaker partner. It will no longer be able to defend its demand for a larger share of assembly seats from the existing 23.

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On the other hand, the whip by the Akali Dal against its own alliance government could rile BJP at the Centre. Ashutosh Kumar, a political scientist at Panjab University, said, “Every Cabinet member is bound by the Cabinet decision. Harsimrat’s resignation was inevitable as a vote against the bills would have violated Article 75.”

However, Kumar doesn’t see any immediate threat to the alliance from BJP. “It is facing a tough election, then it is all too aware that Punjab is a border state with its attendant challenges.”

Is it the first time the Akali Dal has distanced itself from an NDA government move?

In January this year, the Akali Dal had embarrassed the BJP when it supported a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the Punjab Assembly, although it had voted in its favour in Parliament. In a meeting of the party’s core committee, it had said that though it supports CAA as far as it granted protection to the Sikhs and several other communities, the Act fell short of being inclusive as it discriminated against Muslims. Later, the party decided against fighting the Delhi elections over its differences with BJP on this issue.

Earlier this week in Parliament, Sukhbir Badal objected to non-inclusion of Punjabi in the new languages Bill for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, saying it was a language spoken by the locals as far back as the Khalsa Raj. He gave the example of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah who is fluent in Punjabi, and Abdullah concurred.

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