CHANDIGARH: Opposition parties condemned the detention of several farmer leaders, including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, calling it a “cowardly act” of the AAP-led Punjab government.
Several farmer leaders, including Pandher and Dallewal, were detained in Mohali while returning from a meeting with a central delegation, as the Punjab Police evicted farmers from Shambhu and Khanauri protest sites and began clearing the roads, which had been blocked for more than a year.
Condemning the Punjab Police action against the farm union leaders as a “cowardly act” of the state government, senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said it has never happened in the history of Punjab that the government “arrested” the leaders after calling them on the pretext of a meeting.
It is not even the tradition of Punjab, the leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly said in a statement here.
“Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has backstabbed the entire farming community of Punjab. Punjabis will never forget this and will never forgive him for this shameful act,” he said.
BJP leader and Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu alleged that the AAP government in Punjab was trying to “sabotage” talks between the Centre and farmers.
In a statement, Bittu said that he was shocked to hear the news of Punjab Police action against farmer leaders. “The central government is serious about the farmer’s issues, and the sudden action of the Punjab government is aimed at sabotaging the talks. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has betrayed the farmers. Arvind Kejriwal, who has been camping in Punjab for the last three days, has hatched a conspiracy against farmers.”
Congress leader Bajwa said that there was not even an iota of doubt left that CM Mann is working as a “puppet” for the BJP-led Centre.
It has been established that he did this at the direction of his “masters” in the BJP, claimed Bajwa.
“I have been saying this for a long time now, and I repeat it. The AAP and the BJP are two sides of the same coin. Once again, the AAP’s sordid agendas in Punjab have been unmasked,” Bajwa stated.
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring also condemned the incident.
“Both the @BJP4India govt at the centre & the @AAPPunjab govt have betrayed and backstabbed the farmers. Wonder why the @PunjabPoliceInd needed to arrest the farmer leaders when the negotiations were already going on between the central government representatives and the farmers.
“The @BhagwantMann government, which promised to give MSP to Punjab farmers in five minutes, is not even ready to listen to the legitimate demands of the farmers today. I strongly condemn the forcible abduction of farmer leaders and farmers. The Punjab government should immediately release the arrested farmers and accept their demands,” Warring said in a post on X.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal too condemned the police action against farmer leaders and demanded their release.
The BJP government at the Centre and the AAP government of Punjab together have “betrayed” the farmers by calling them for talks on MSP guarantee and then “fraudulently arresting” them, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
He said the 62 crore farmers of the country will never forgive this “conspiratorial betrayal”.
