"Unfortunate": Union Minister As Akali Dal Leader Raises Farmers' Issue At Event

In a veiled attack on Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, after attending the inauguration of AIIMS Bathinda, on Sunday said that "seasoned politicians" should resist the temptation of injecting their own "political frustration" in these type of occasions.

This comes after Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal raised the issue of protesting farmers after the virtual inauguration of AIIMS Bathinda by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"In this function that I attended virtually, I heard one particular person made a highly political speech. I don't think an occasion like the dedication of a medical facility..... They take an oath and they are totally committed to human life and they're apolitical...Look, the government of the Prime Minister is dealing with those problems in a manner no government has done before," Mr Puri told news agency ANI.

He further said that the event was not the right time and platform to raise other demands and called it "unfortunate."

"The MSP has gone up several times with more coverage and more benefits to the farmers and what the farmers are being paid every three months (under PM Kisan Samman Yojana). The reference to politics in today's programme was unfortunate. I thought seasoned politicians should resist the temptation of injecting their own political frustration into occasions like this," he added.

This comes after PM Modi inaugurated five All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh), Bathinda (Punjab) and Kalyani (West Bengal), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he has completed the guarantee given to the people of Rae Bareli.

During the last round of talks, which ended past midnight on February 18, the panel of three Union ministers made an offer to buy five crops --moong dal, urad dal, tur dal, maize and cotton--from farmers at MSP for five years through central agencies.

However, the protesting farmers turned down the demand and returned to their protest sites.

The SAD and BJP became alliance partners in 1996, but the controversy over the Centre's now-repealed agriculture laws led to the SAD one of the BJP's oldest allies breaking away from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2020.

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