Rahul facilitated passage of Farm Bills in Parliament: SAD leader

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Punjab and alleged that he facilitated passage of three Bills in the Parliament.

The Shirom Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Punjab and alleged that he facilitated passage of three Bills in the Parliament.

"Rahul Gandhi did not only run away from the country when the Agri Bills were to be tabled in Parliament in the most cowardly manner but also facilitated their passage by refusing to issue a whip to your MPs to vote against them and even preventing senior leaders from speaking against the Bills in Parliament. But for your cowardice, the Bills could have been stopped, but you chose to help the BJP government rather than standing with the farmers of the country," senior SAD leader Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said.

Stating that Rahul had now been brought to Punjab to stage a protest after the Congress party realised that the farmers would now turn against it, Prof Chandumajra asked the Congress leader why he had refused to answer even one of the five questions posed to him by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

"Even the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) had put up these posers across the State to ensure Rahul could read them loud and clear during his 'yatra'. "You chose not to answer any of the questions because you know in your heart that not only are you a coward but that you have come to support a liar in the form of your chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who did not even hesitate to swear a false oath in the name of the holy Gutka Sahib and the Dasam Pitah," he said.

Also questioning the timing of the visit, the SAD leader said it was strange that Rahul Gandhi had remembered Punjab and its farmers after many years only because his party was in doldrums with only a little over a year left before the polls.

"You seem to be in the habit of remembering farmers only when a particular state goes to the polls as happened during your pre-poll visit to Madhya Pradesh earlier. You never visited Punjab when hundreds of farmers committed suicide after your government refused to waive off their agricultural loans. You also did not visit the state when 325 persons were killed by the Congress liquor mafia including your close confidant and the chief minister's religious advisor Paramjit Singh Sarna," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )