Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to extend best wishes on his birthday. The five-time CM is celebrating his 93rd birthday today.
The Akali Dal stalwart had last week returned his Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, to lodge his protest over the farm laws.
Earlier in September, the Shiromani Akali Dal pulled out of the BJP-led NDA over the passage of farm bills. SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had even resigned as the minister of food processing industries from the Union Cabinet to protest against the farm laws.
The SAD and the BJP had been allies since 1996 when both forged a pre-poll alliance which brought them to power.
READ MORE: Former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal returns Padma Vibhushan
Earlier today, Parkash Singh urged PM Modi to scrap the farm laws. He claimed that the new agriculture laws have pushed the country into a 'deep turmoil'. In his four-page letter, a PTI report said, the nonagenarian leader stressed the need for making India "a truly federal country", adding “the roots of the ongoing crisis lie in the abdication of our commitment to the federal approach”.
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