Farmers Movement Archive

Capt trashes ‘deputing police officers to negotiate with farmers’ charge

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said there was no question of deputing police officers to negotiate with farmers protesting at the Delhi border. Pointing out that he had made it categorically clear that the ball was in the Centre’s court, with the Punjab government having no role to play in the negotiations with farmers, Amarinder trashed the charges by Akali and AAP leaders as based on unfounded reports in a small section of the media. With farmer protests going on in Punjab since long, way before the agitation started at the Delhi border, Capt Amarinder said he had naturally asked police officers to give him regular intelligence reports and updates on the situation not just from the national capital but also across Punjab. Amarinder said he dismissed the “twisted and senseless interpretation” being given to the presence of a few Punjab Police personnel at the farmers’ protest site. It was the job of the state police to keep tabs on the evolving situation, and his job, as the CM and the home minister, to remain updated about all developments, he added. “Anyone who believes that a couple of police officers can negotiate with farmers or persuade their leaders to accept the Centre’s suggestions regarding amendments to the farm laws is really naive,” he said. Amarinder said both SAD president Sukhbir Badal and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, as well as their party colleagues, were resorting to lies and deceit in their desperation to cover up their own failures in the entire crisis triggered by the farm laws. Pointing to Sukhbir’s ridiculous claim that the resolutions passed in the Punjab legislative against the three farm bills had not been sent to the governor, he quipped that the SAD president had clearly lost it. “Or perhaps he is suffering from serious amnesia since his party colleagues, including his own brother-in-law Bikram Majithia, had accompanied me to the governor’s House for submitting the resolution and the three State Amendment Bills,” remarked the chief minister, advising Sukhbir to seek medical help for his problem. Taking a dig at the contradictory remarks of Sukhbir and his wife, former Union minister Harsimrat Badal, on the governor assent issue, Amarinder termed it a classic case of Charles Darwin’s missing link, which the Akalis seem to be suffering from.

The Times of India

2021-01-09

Chandigarh