Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhdev Dhindsa return Padma awards

Former Union Minister and five-time Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Badal on Thursday returned the Padam Vibhushan award in protest against “the betrayal of the farmers by the Government of India.”

In a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, Badal said he was returning the award due to “the shocking indifference and contempt with which the government was treating the ongoing peaceful and democratic agitation of the farmers against the three farm Acts”.

Incidentally, SAD (Democratic) chief and rebel Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa has also announced that he would be returning his Padma Bhushan award.