Chandigarh, January 28: Punjab Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh on Thursday hit out at Union Minister Prakash Javadekar overhis disgraceful and desperate attempt to shift blame for the shocking Red Fortviolence, which had evidently been instigated by supporters and members of hisown Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in collusion with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP),with the Congress nowhere in the picture.
“Workers and supporters of BJP and AAP, and not theCongress, have been caught on camera waving the Nishan sahib at the Red Fort,”pointed out the Chief Minister in a strong retaliation to Javadekar’s unfoundedallegations against the Congress, and his own government in Punjab. CaptainAmarinder’s comments came even as Delhi Police named Deep Sidhu, a key aide ofBJP MP Sunny Deol, as one of the main instigators of the violence, and AmrikMicky, an AAP member, was also spotted at the violence site.
Not a single Congress leader or member was seen at the RedFort indulging in any kind of lawlessness, Captain Amarinder pointed out,adding that even farmers were not responsible for the 26th January trouble,which was in fact the doing of anti-social elements who had infiltrated theTractor Rally. The Centre should also get a free and fair probe conducted intothe possible role of any political party, or even a third country as is beingalleged by BJP’s own leaders, to ensure that the guilty are punished and thegenuine farmers are not unnecessarily maligned or harassed, he added.
The Chief Minister also lashed out at the Union Minister foraccusing Rahul Gandhi of inciting the violence, asking “Did the Congress leaderask anyone to climb Red Fort? He did not. It was BJP and AAP men who did that,”he said, adding that Rahul had, in fact, promptly condemned the violence, andmade it clear that violence was no solution to the crisis.
“These allegations are nothing but a cover-up attempt by theBJP leader for his own party’s role in the violence, and in fact for theirutter failure to manage the situation, which they had created in the firstplace with the unilateral implementation of the black Farm Laws,” said CaptainAmarinder, trashing Javadekar’s charges.
“How could I stop peaceful farmers from going to their ownnational capital to exercise their democratic right of protest,” the ChiefMinister further said, reacting to the Union Minister’s statement that thePunjab government failed to stop farmers from joining the Tractor Rally.Permission for the Tractor March was officially given by the Delhi Police andthere was no reason for the Punjab government to prevent farmers from joiningthe rally, said the Chief Minister, adding that if there was a ban on themovement of farmers to the Delhi borders, the central government, of whichJavadekar is a part, should have directed their BJP chief minister in Haryanato stop them on the way.
For more than a couple of months, farmers had beenpeacefully agitating in Punjab without causing any trouble, before camping atthe Delhi border, where also they had been completely peaceful for two months before the events of January 26,the Chief Minister pointed out, adding that pinning the blame for the violenceon the Punjab government or on the Congress is clearly a diversionary tactic onthe part of the BJP leadership.
Captain Amarinder further pointed out that all those monthswhen the farmers were blocking railway tracks in Punjab, he had been reachingout repeated to the central leadership, including the Prime Minister and a hostof ministers, to intervene and resolve the crisis. “But nobody heeded us,nobody listened to me or to the agitating farmers, fighting for theirsurvival,” he added. This insensitivity of the BJP and the central governmentto the pain and anguish of the farmers, many of whom have lost their lives intheir struggle or justice, is causing a heavy loss for the nation, said theChief Minister, urging them to give up their ego and accept the farmers’justified demand for repeal of the Farm Laws. If the Centre can put the laws inabeyance for two years, why can’t they simply revoke them and bring freshlegislations after due discussions with the farmers and other stakeholders, headded.