Farmers Movement Archive

SKM, Oppn condemn Chandigarh police action on farm activists

Chandigarh, July 18The events of yesterday’s protest by farm activists at the motor market in Secor 48 have evoked strong reactions from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and local parties. While the morcha and BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni condemned police action on protesters, Opposition parties questioned MP Kirron Kher’s sudden wakening after about two years of absence from the city. No call for blocking roads: SKMA statement about several organisations holding a meeting with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) in connection with “blocking entry roads to Chandigarh if false charges on protesters aren’t dropped,” was issued by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta), Punjab. However, the morcha said it held no such meeting and it had nothing to do with the notice. The SKM shared this information through “Tractor 2 Twitter”.In their collective statement, SKM leaders said: “Yesterday, the Chandigarh police unleashed violence on peacefully protesting farmers who gathered to protest against BJP’s Sanjay Tandon and Ravikant Sharma (Mayor of Chandigarh).”They added: “Worse, they even picked up and arrested a child! When video clips of the eight-year-old arrested boy went viral, the police put out a flimsy explanation that cut no ice with anyone. There is a lot of visual evidence to show that the police, indeed, picked up and arrested the boy. The SKM condemns the Chandigarh police’s application for judicial custody of three protesters for 14 days today.”Former city MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, too, tweeted about the incident: “Farmers are protesting peacefully against three black laws for over 10 months now but government remains obdurate and slaps criminal charges against them, last week in Haryana and now in Chandigarh. Has the BJP forgotten that dharnas, gherao, rasta roko were the means it deployed in the past?”Harmohan Dhawan, city’s AAP representative, said: “I support farmers’ agitation. Unnecessarily, the BJP is instigating these people (farm activists); they have been sitting there for eight months, peacefully. The BJP should avoid going to places where farm activists are protesting so as to not instigate them.”Commenting on Kirron Kher’s tweet, Dhawan said: “The police should not come under Kirron Kher’s or any person’s political pressure and stay impartial in their line of duty.”Meanwhile, in a video message, Chaduni said: “If the Chandigarh police don’t stop its witch-hunt, going to various villages in Punjab, we will intensify protests. Some BJP people are saying farm activists are not farmers, well, this fight is that of anyone who eats food. They bought potato from us at Rs5 per kg and sold it at Rs40 per kg in Chandigarh. Similarly, onions bought at Rs8 a kg were sold at Rs80 a kg, so it should concern the city folk.”

The Tribune

2021-07-19