New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal leader and Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal was interrupted during her speech at the inauguration of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bathinda on Sunday, February 25, when she raised the ongoing farmers’ protest. Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually participated in the event from Rajkot.
Some members of the audience objected to her speaking about farmers’ issues with loud shouts, saying that she should confine herself to speaking only about health and AIIMS in Bathinda.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who spoke a little later virtually after Badal, told the latter that it was not the right time and right platform to raise other demands.
Speaking to media, after the event, Puri said, according to NDTV, “seasoned politicians” should resist the temptation of injecting their own “political frustration” in these types of occasions. “In this function that I attended virtually, I heard one particular person made a highly political speech. I don’t think an occasion like the dedication of a medical facility… They take an oath and they are totally committed to human life and they’re apolitical…Look, the government of the Prime Minister is dealing with those problems in a manner no government has done before,” Puri told news agency ANI.
At an event in Rajkot, Modi inaugurated AIIMS at Rajkot in Gujarat, Bathinda in Punjab, Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, Kalyani in West Bengal, and Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh.
Farmers have been back at Delhi’s borders in protest, demanding the Union government to keep its promises, including minimum support price.
