Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Lok Sabha MP from Bhatinda, Punjab took to screaming on the floor of the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, and the frustration on her face was more than evident. Having lost an alliance with the BJP, which kept the Shiromani Akali Dal relevant in national politics, purely due to her and Sukhbir Badal’s short-sightedness has visibly worked the lady up. On February 9, Harsimrat Badal put on display the same frustration before her Lok Sabha colleagues, in a final attempt to resuscitate her party’s freefalling fortunes. However, close to nobody was impressed with her arrogant, communal and divisive rant.
It must be mentioned here that the various protesting farmers’ unions currently camping on the borders of Delhi, and who ran a free riot across the national capital on January 26, have been claiming that their agitation has nothing to do with ‘religion’. Yet, Harsimrat Kaur Badal took it upon herself to create friction between Hindus and Sikhs, as she took to defending the sticking of Nishaan Sahib – a Sikh religious flag on the flag post of Red Fort on Republic Day. Then, Badal, for reasons best known to her, shamelessly raked up the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur to make a political point.
“Our” Gurus sacrificed their lives to save “your” janeu and tilak, shouted Harsimrat Kaur Badal. This, while pointing to the BJP benches, of course. But has the BJP been discounting the contributions of Sikhs, or slandering them, which merited such a statement by Badal? No. In fact, the BJP has been very reconciliatory, understanding and even lenient throughout, even in face of aggression. And then, Harsimrat took to dividing the Gurus in “ours” and “yours”. Her tone made one thing clear – the Akali Dal’s prime motive now is to divide Hindus and Sikhs, and project the Gurus as only those of Sikhs. That such remarks were allowed in the Parliament is in itself a crying shame.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi was quick to aggressively counter Harsimrat’s unending rant, and rebuked her for the divisive and communal politics she was dragging into the Lok Sabha. Harsimrat Kaur Badal had pompously resigned from the Modi cabinet last year, when the protests against the three farm reforms in Punjab began gathering steam. That she herself supported the said reforms before resigning is a separate matter altogether.
The Bhatinda MP had also falsely claimed during her address on Wednesday that the security forces had used bullets along with water cannons and tear gas shells on farmers during the November clash when farmers tried to enter Delhi via Singhu border. On the January 26 violence, Harsimrat alleged that the police personnel attacked “unarmed farmers”.
With her quitting the Union Cabinet, and with the Akali Dal leaving the NDA and ending its decades-old alliance with the BJP, the Badal family had thought that its electoral fortunes in Punjab will witness an upswing. However, the SAD freefall continues to this day without respite, and in frustration of her short-sighted actions, Harsimrat Badal has begun going berserk in the country’s parliament.