Bathinda (Punjab), Oct 3 (PTI) Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday accused the BJP-led Union government of "betraying" his party, the SAD, and farmers by "going back" on its assurance of not converting the farm Ordinances into Acts without taking them on board.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the issue of farm laws last year. Harsimrat Kaur Badal had also resigned as Union Minister.

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At an SAD rally here, the Akali stalwart spoke about the "painful betrayal".

He said, "These assurances had followed SAD's public stance that it would oppose the Bills and quit both the cabinet and the alliance if the government hustled the legislation through without taking the farmers on board."

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"I felt utterly betrayed and deeply pained when the Bills were introduced in Parliament to convert ordinances into laws," Badal said.

He said that he had thought the BJP would be different from the Congress. "Obviously, in retrospect, it was a mistake to trust them."

But once the 'betrayal" became a reality, the SAD did what it had promised to the farmers and their representatives, Badal said, adding, "We promptly fulfilled our promise to resign from the cabinet, quit the alliance with the BJP and I returned my Padma Vibhushan."

He also pleaded against different persons, parties and organizations dissipating "collective energies of all Punjabis especially the energy of the farmers in mutual bickering and ego battles."

"We all need to resist the temptation to run one another down and instead pool all our energies and resources to fight the Centre with united resolve and energy," a party statement quoted Badal as saying.

On desecration incidents, the SAD patriarch said he had been "deeply hurt by wanton allegations of laxity on part of the Akali government in dealing with the painful sacrilege incidents and the related events".

"Those who accuse us have no idea what grievous sin they are committing by casting aspersions on devout Sikhs themselves."

Indicating that he might play a more proactive role in public life in the days to come, Badal told the gathering, "Age or health considerations notwithstanding, I am ready to make the supreme sacrifices in defending the interests of Punjabis in general and the farmers in particular.”

Addressing the rally, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal announced that in case Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi did not announce compensation for farmers affected by pink-bollworm within one week, his party would barricade his residence in Chandigarh.

Punjabis were feeling "betrayed" by the actions of Channi, he alleged.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal claimed that seven farmers had committed suicide in Bathinda parliamentary constituency following the pink-bollworm attack on the cotton crop.

"Farmers were forced to take this extreme step because the Congress government failed to announce quick compensation to them," she alleged.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)