Farmers Movement Archive

Deep Sidhu & government agencies behind rampage: Farm netas

BATHINDA: Farm leaders on Tuesday evening blamed the Majha-based Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee and Deep Sidhu - who had led a group to Red Fort - for the violence in the national capital and termed the entire episode as “the handiwork of some central agencies” to defame the farmers’ struggle. Sources in the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said that the foundation for the unruly scenes was laid late on Monday evening when ruckus was created at the Samyukt Morcha stage and some youngsters along with gangster-turned-activist Lakha Sidhana had taken command of the stage from where it was openly announced that they would go on the route as planned earlier as some were talking about heading towards Red Fort. BKU-Rajewal leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said: “I had said that if we remain peaceful we will win, but if we go for violence we may not win. Now those who took farmers to wrong routes are responsible for all this. We will introspect as to why and how it all happened.” Farm leader Rajinder Singh blamed central agencies and said, “Deep Sidhu too did not play a positive role.” BKU Ekta Ugrahan president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said, “What happened is unfortunate and we will look into all this and see what went wrong as it seemed central agencies succeeded in making their scheme work.” BKU Haryana leader Gurnam Singh Charuni criticised Deep Sidhu for misleading youth to Red Fort and described him as a “dalal (agent)” of the Union government. He made it clear that the farmers’ agitation was not religious and it would remain the same in future. In a video released on Tuesday evening, Charuni cautioned people to beware of Deep Sidhu and said, “It is condemnable to give it a religious colour, whatever incident has happened today at Lal Qila (Red Fort). Our andolan (protest) is of the farmers only and a mass movement, which is not at all a religious one. And whatever Deep Sidhu has done, we condemn it in strong words and we feel that he is a dalal (agent) of the government who is messing up from many days. Every time, he speaks against the farm leaders and misleads against them. Whatever he did today is highly condemnable as we had not given any such call of going to Lal Qila.”

The Times of India

2021-01-27

India