Police Case Filed Against Farm Leaders. BJP Blamed for Delhi Violence
Farm leaders and some political outfits accuse the Modi government and BJP for the violence in Delhi.
By Rakesh Raman
Delhi Police has named at least nine farmer leaders in its FIR (first information report) filed for the violence in Delhi on January 26. They include Yogendra Yadav, Darshan Pal, Gurnam Chudhni, Rajinder Singh, Balbir Singh Rajewal, Buta Singh Burjgil, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Satnam Pannu, and Rakesh Tikait.
They face charges of incitement, rioting, and vandalism during the farmers’ tractor rally that took place Tuesday, January 26, as part of the ongoing farm agitation against the government’s new farm laws.
A group of unruly farmers had deviated from the approved route to storm the Red Fort complex violently and they hoisted Nishan Sahib, which is a Sikh religious flag, on a flagpole which is reserved for the Indian national flag. Police claim that the miscreants also attacked policemen and damaged state property in their attempt to enter the Red Fort.
Since the farm leaders whose names appear in the police FIRs had been giving baseless assurances to the police that their tractor rally will be peaceful, police have held them responsible for the violence.
However, the farm leaders and some political outfits accuse the government of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and his party BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) for the violence. Farm leaders assert that Delhi Police – which works under Home Minister Amit Shah – had provided a safe passage to the rioters to reach Red Fort and create chaos there.
They claim that the rioters under the garb of farmers were led by one Deep Sidhu who is an associate of BJP leader and Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, who is a Member of Parliament (MP) from Punjab’s Gurdaspur constituency.
It is alleged that a few days ago the Modi government had cleverly issued a notice to Deep Sidhu through the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror-related case and then used him surreptitiously to commit violence in order to defame the farmers’ agitation.
– Plant your stooge in the protest.
– Create disturbance
– Blame the farmers who were protesting peacefully.That’s @BJP4India for you. pic.twitter.com/Bgn1O1isSB
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 27, 2021
Today, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal released photographs of Deep Sidhu with PM Modi, Amit Shah, and Sunny Deol. “Plant your stooge in the protest. Create disturbance. Blame the farmers who were protesting peacefully. That’s BJP for you,” AAP tweeted along with the photographs of Deep Sidhu with all these BJP leaders.
As hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers – mainly from Punjab – have been protesting on the outskirts of Delhi for the past 2 months, they feared that the government will use violence to torpedo their agitation.
According to reports, after Tuesday’s violence, a couple of farmer unions have disassociated themselves from the farmers’ movement.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also runs F A C T (Farm And Crop Times) news magazine on global farming and agricultural affairs.
