The SAD leaders dubbed the farm laws as the "biggest present-day danger" (File)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday said it will boycott President Ram Nath Kovind's address to joint session of parliament to protest the "adamant manner" in which the Centre was "bent" on implementing the three farm laws.
This came on a day 16 Opposition parties led by the Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and the TMC decided to boycott the president's address to show solidarity with the farmers protesting the new farm laws.
Besides, the AAP has decided to not attend the address.
The budget session of Parliament will begin with the address of President Ram Nath Kovind to the joint sitting of the two Houses on Friday morning.
In a joint statement, SAD party leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Naresh Gujral and Prem Singh Chandumajra said, "The SAD is a party of farmers. We have always stood up for the cause of the farming community."
"In the present situation, when the Centre is unmoved by the suffering of the community which has been agitating for months against the agri acts, we feel there is no responsibility on our part to attend the President''s address. The party will boycott the address to protest the adamant manner in which the Centre is bent on implementing the three farm laws," they said.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal are Lok Sabha MPs while Bhundur and Gujral are Rajya Sabha members.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a Rajya Sabha member, had parted ways with the SAD and had floated his own party SAD (Democratic).
The SAD leaders dubbed the farm laws as the "biggest present-day danger".
They said, "The tallest leaders of the region, be it Choudhary Chhotu Ram, Choudhary Charan Singh or Parkash Singh Badal, have always stood for the cause of the peasantry." The leaders asserted the SAD would not only continue to support the ''Kisan Andolan'' but also strive to ensure it was victorious.
Chandumajra said the SAD and its president Sukhbir Singh Badal had been in contact with senior leaders of like-minded regional parties.
"We have reached out to the Trinamool Congress, DMK and the Shiv Sena, besides others. We all feel that the agri laws which were bulldozed through parliament in the last session are not only unconstitutional but also anti-people.
"We also feel that the central government is encroaching upon the powers of the states by legislating on an issue which was a State subject," he said.