Farmers Movement Archive

Maligning farmers may lower armed forces’ morale: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh

CHANDIGARH: Calling for an immediate end to the “vilification campaign” launched against farmers in the wake of Red Fort incidents, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday warned that maligning the farmers in this manner could cause the morale of the armed forces, 20% of which is from Punjab, to go down. “Spreading false information against the farmers can create divisions, which can cause problems for Punjab,” he warned, urging the media to handle the situation properly and sensitively. Amarinder also condemned violence by “some miscreants” at the Singhu border on Friday and urged the Centre to conduct a thorough probe to identify the “so-called” locals who had purportedly broken through tight security cordons to attack the farmers at the agitation site and their property. “Were they really locals?” asked Amarinder, seeking a proper investigation to identify the troublemakers and ascertain where they came from. “I can’t believe that the local people could have turned against the farmers like this. Miscreants might have been brought from other places by vested interests to foment trouble,” he said, adding that “locals calling the farmers traitors” was not something he could believe to be true. “What is happening and what happened at Singhu is what Pakistan wants,” said Amarinder, pointing out that he had been warning for a long time that Pakistan will try to exploit the unrest over the farm laws to disturb Punjab’s peace.

The Times of India

2021-01-30

Chandigarh