Farmers Movement Archive

Police detain BJP leaders in Jalandhar after launch of Insaaf March against Amarinder govt

Punjab BJP leaders were detained for an hour and a half on Thursday afternoon soon after they launched the Insaaf March in Jalandhar to protest the alleged atrocities on the Scheduled Caste community in the state. Police stopped state BJP president, Ashwani Sharma, Union minister of state Som Prakash, former state president Vijay Sampla, general secretary Jiwan Gupta, and former state minister Manorajan Kalia among others at Surya Enclave and took them to Circuit House, where they held a protest and termed the move as a bid to suppress the voice of Dalits. The march was to culminate at chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s residence in Chandigarh. Former minister Manorajan Kalia said that it’s the duty of the police to maintain law and order, “instead they are crushing our democratic rights”. “The Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal also took out marches over the past few days, then why didn’t the police stop them? We were detained just because we raised a voice against atrocities on Dalits and the scholarship scam by cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who has been given clean chit by the CM,” Kalia said. Party general secretary Jiwan Gupta said, “We will continue our fight against the Congress government.” Police authorities said that the BJP leaders were detained to avoid a faceoff with farmers protesting against the new farm laws as recently state BJP president Ashwani Sharma’s car was attacked by them.

Hindustan Times

22-10-2020

Chandigarh