Two anti-farmer parties have joined hands: Kharge on protest crackdown
Kharge alleged that both the BJP and the AAP were “intoxicated” with the arrogance of power and are guilty for their actions against farmers
The eviction of farmers from Shambhu and Khanauri protest sites has prompted Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to say that “two anti-farmer parties” — that is, the BJP and AAP — seem to have “joined hands against the country’s food providers”.
Kharge alleged that both parties were “intoxicated” with the arrogance of power and are guilty for their actions against farmers.
“It appears that two anti-farmer parties have now joined hands against the country’s food providers! First the Punjab government called the farmers for talks and then forcibly removed them from the protest site,” the Congress president said in a post in Hindi on X.
Also read: After police crackdown, Shambhu border wears deserted look
‘Country has not forgotten…’
The forcible detention of senior farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Shri Sarwan Singh Pandher by the Punjab Police cannot be condemned enough, he said.
“The country has not forgotten — Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, when farmers were fired upon during BJP rule. How the son of a minister of the Modi government crushed the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. How a farmer from Rajasthan hanged himself in Kejriwal’s rally in 2015 and he remained a silent spectator,” Kharge said.
“Whether it is Modi Ji’s promise of MSP to farmers or Aam Aadmi Party’s swift implementation of the three black laws in Delhi, both these parties have betrayed our farmers of the country,” he alleged.
The 62 crore farmers of the country will never forgive these “anti-farmer parties”, Kharge said.
Police crackdown
Following the eviction of protesting farmers from the Shambhu border, Haryana security personnel on Thursday (March 20) morning started removing cemented barricades, which were erected to prevent the Punjab farmers from heading to Delhi.
At the Shambhu border, excavators and backhoe loaders have been deployed to remove the concrete blocks to clear the Shambhu-Ambala road, which remained closed for over a year.
Haryana security officials had fortified with cement blocks, iron nails, and barbed wire the state’s border with Punjab to scuttle any attempt by the farmers from Punjab to move towards the capital as part of their Delhi Chalo programme.
Also read: Farmers evicted, Haryana forces remove barricades to clear Shambhu-Ambala road
Farmers announce sit-in
Punjab Police also resumed its operation to dismantle the remaining temporary structures on the Punjab side of the Shambhu border on Thursday to clear the road.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced sit-in protests (dharnas) outside the offices of deputy commissioners in protest against the Punjab Police crackdown.
Both the bodies, which spearheaded the farmers’ stir at Shambhu and Khanauri border points, slammed the AAP government in Punjab for evicting the protesters and detaining farmer leaders on Wednesday.
(With agency inputs)