Strongly condemning theattack on BJP MLA from Abohar, Arun Narang, allegedly by angry farmersprotesting the Centre’s Farm Laws, Punjab Chief Minister Captain AmarinderSingh and Speaker Rana KP Singh on Saturday warned of strict action againstanyone trying to disturb the state’s peace by taking the law into their hands.
In a statement issuedhere today, the Speaker said, such incidents had no place in a democratic setup. “It is not only unacceptable, but highly condemnable that an electedrepresentative of the people was mercilessly thrashed in full public view”, hesaid.
We will not allowanyone to take law into their own hands”, he said, while adding, such incidentsare aimed at maligning the farmers’ agitation and weakening their cause.
They urged the farmersnot to indulge in such acts of violence. The Chief Minister appealed to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to urgently resolve the crisis triggered by the FarmLaws to prevent the situation from escalating further.
Captain Amarinder alsodirected DGP Dinkar Gupta to take strict action, under the law, against theperpetrators, who also clashed with the police personnel who tried to rescuethe MLA.
Gurmail Singh PPS, SPHeadquarters, Faridkot, was, in fact, injured while trying to save and evacuatethe MLA from the protesting crowd. He also suffered a lathi blow on his head,causing his turban to fall off. He was admitted in Civil Hospital, Malout,where the incident took place.
The DGP later said acriminal cases will be registered against the suspects who assaulted the MLAand police officers. He said statements of local BJP leaders were beingrecorded and relevant sections of law would be imposed on its basis.
With the simmeringtensions between the Centre, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and thefarmers, who have been fighting for their rights for the past four months,intensifying, a number of incidents of protests against BJP leaders werereported from different parts of Punjab today. The Chief Minister said whileprotesting is the democratic right of the farmers, violence of any sorts wouldnot be tolerated, and the law and order situation in the state would not beallowed to be disturbed at any cost. He said barring the assault on the BJP MLA,other BJP leaders were safely evacuated from the protest sites.
Seeking the PrimeMinister’s immediate intervention to resolve the tensions, the Chief Ministersaid any further delay on the part of the central government would triggerfurther unrest among the agitating farmers. Coupled with the increased threatfrom across the border from Pakistan-backed terrorist outfits, who were alreadytrying to exploit the situation, this could pose a serious security threat toPunjab, and resultantly the entire nation, he warned.
He again reiterated theneed for the Centre not to stand on ego but to immediately revoke the Farm Lawsand sit across the table with the farmers to work out new legislations based ontheir inputs and feedback. The farmers, he pointed out, had been out on theroads for 4 months now, and with no sign of the central government beingwilling to step back, the anger among the farmers was growing.
Reacting to the demandof Punjab BJP leaders for his resignation over the issue, the Chief Ministersaid instead of trying to take political mileage from today’s incident, theyshould pressurise their central leadership to withdraw the controversiallegislations. They should apprise the BJP central leadership of the genuineanger among the farmers, which the Government of India has been brushing off asthe handiwork of the Congress in Punjab, he added.