Former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of duplicity in backing the farmers' protest against new agricultural laws.
Before doing PC & crying croc tears at why Pbis being called Khalistanis, you @RahulGandhi should tell why ur grandmother used same words for Pbis, why your father got them slaughtered & why you labelled them as drug addicts? Once u come up with ans then only talk abt Pb farmers.
— Harsimrat Kaur Badal (@HarsimratBadal_) January 15, 2021
Where was @RahulGandhi when farmers staged dharna in Pb? Whr was he when Bills were passed in Parl? 40 Cong MPs were absent from proceedings in RS. His Pb CM is now hand in glove with BJP-led GoI. Does Rahul think fancy sympathetic words will wash off his complicity in crime?
— Harsimrat Kaur Badal (@HarsimratBadal_) January 15, 2021
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Ms Badal, whose party had been part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and parted ways amid growing backlash from its key voter base in Punjab, had quit as union minister on the day the laws were passed.
Her party has long been an opponent of the Congress in Punjab and both have tried to pin the controversial laws on each other as well as attacking the BJP.
Joining a demonstration against the farm laws in Delhi earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not respect farmers and wants to tire out those protesting against the new laws.
"The three (farm) laws have been brought to finish the farmers. If we don't stop this now, it will continue to happen in other sectors too. Narendra Modi does not respect the farmers. The farmers will neither deter, nor fear," said Mr Gandhi.
The talks that are being held with the protesting farmer leaders are part of the government's delaying tactics, he said at Jantar Mantar, where he along with Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined party MPs in the demonstration.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi since November 28 against the three laws that list where and how farm produce is sold.
While the government says the laws are much-needed reforms for the antiquated sector that will remove middlemen, farmers say they will leave them at the mercy of big corporates and ease out safeguards like guaranteed prices for staple crops.
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