Harsimrat Kaur, SAD Chief Sukhbir Badal Held in Punjab During Anti-Farm Law Protest

Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal were arrested on Thursday evening during a protest against the new farms laws in Chandigarh.

Sukhbir, who is also an MP from Ferozpur, and several other party workers were detained from near Mullapur barrier in Chandigarh. Police also resorted to baton charge and used water cannons to disperse the SAD workers during a Kisan March against the farm legislations.

Putting out a tweet about her arrest, Harsimrat said “they won’t be able to silence us.”

“We are being arrested for speaking out for the rights of farmers, but we are pursuing the truth and our force will not be silenced by this force,” she further wrote.

The SAD, which walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the passage of the farm bills in Parliament, took out three separate ‘kisan marches’ from the three religious Takhts in Punjab to Chandigarh earlier in the day.

While Sukhbir led one of the marches which started from the Akal Takht in Amritsar, Harsimrat headed another procession which commenced from Takht Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda.

The processions from the three Sikh Takhts were scheduled to reach Chandigarh later in the day where the SAD leadership was supposed to hand over a memorandum against the farm laws to Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore.

Addressing the media in Amritsar, Sukhbir said his party wanted a rollback of the farm bills and that the farming community was against the black laws.

On September 17, Harsimrat Kaur Badal had quit the Union Cabinet after the SAD chief had strongly opposed the bills in the Lok Sabha, claiming the legislations will “destroy” the agriculture sector in Punjab. President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave assent to the three contentious bills — Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.