Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, on Monday, targeted his Haryana counterpart for defending the assault on protesting farmers by putting the onus of their agitation on Punjab saying that ML Khattar’s remarks have completely exposed his government’s anti-farmer agenda.
Captain Amarinder reminded Khattar and deputy CM Dushyant Chautala that the farmers who were protesting against the BJP meeting in Karnal when the police rained lathis on them belonged to Haryana and not Punjab. He was reacting to Khattar’s and Chautala’s allegations of Punjab being behind the farmers’ agitation against the Farm Laws.
Blaming the BJP squarely for the farmers’ wrath, Captain Amarinder said the crisis would not have assumed such grave proportions had the BJP including the Haryana CM and deputy CM, heeded the farmers’ concerns and empathised with their pain instead of taking refuge in shameful lies for the horrendous attacks on the peaceful farmers. He trashed Khattar’s claim that the Haryana police used force only after the farmers disturbed the state’s law and order, pointing out that the viral video of the SDM giving explicit instructions to the cops to bash up the farmers nailed the CM’s lies. “How did the SDM know that the farmers intended to resort to stone-pelting etc, as claimed by Khattar?” asked the CM. “Can’t you see that the farmers of your own state are angry with you for your apathetic attitude towards them and your party’s stubborn refusal to repeal the Farm Laws?” he asked the Haryana leaders, adding that the farmers were fighting for their survival and didn’t need provocation from Punjab or any other state to protect thems and their families.
The sentiment of the entire country was with the farmers in the matter of the Farm Laws, imposed by the BJP-led Central government in the midst of the Covid pandemic, the CM pointed out, adding that the BJP’s adamant refusal to revoke the legislation reflected the vested interests of the party and its leadership that once again placed their crony capitalist friends over the common man.
“Repeal the Farm Laws instead of blaming Punjab for the mess your party has put the farming sector in,” he said, warning that the BJP would have to pay for their acts in the upcoming Assembly elections in various states, and in every poll thereafter. The Khattar government’s repeated attempts to forcibly end the farmers’ agitation, and the derogatory and obnoxious terms used against farmers by various BJP leaders, will only backfire on their party, Captain Amarinder added.
The CM pointed out that his state had not witnessed a single incident of violence when farmers were protesting in Punjab. “Even recently, when sugarcane farmers staged protests, we negotiated with them and resolved the issue instead of using brute force to try and subjugate them,” he added.