Farmers Movement Archive

Farmer leaders blame ‘anti-social elements’

There was plenty of finger-pointing as farm union leaders rushed to distance themselves from the protesters who engaged in clashes with the police and rampaged the Red Fort on Tuesday. Several leaders admitted that the violence could weaken their cause. The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), a defiant Punjab union which was the first to break from the agreed route, blamed “anti-social elements”. “We strongly condemn the incident. It’s an act of anti-social elements. We never had any plan to go to the Red Fort and stage any kind of protest over there. The aim of these anti-social elements seems to weaken the ongoing farmers’ movement,” said KMSC general secretary Sarvan Singh Pandher. All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah, who is part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha leadership that has been negotiating with the government, blamed the KMSC as well as a “rogue criminal element” for betraying the farmers. “We condemn such action. It is not that farmers are out of control,” he said.

The Hindu

2021-01-27

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH