Stop maligning farmers: Chief Minister

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 27

Lambasting the BJP over the derogatory terms used by its senior leaders against protesting farmers, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday asked the party to stop maligning the farmers and their genuine fight for justice by calling them offensive names like 'Urban Naxals', `Khalistanis', 'hooligans', etc.

"If the BJP can't distinguish between anguished citizens fighting for their survival and terrorists or militants or hooligans, it should give up all pretense of being a people's party. A party which treats citizens exercising their democratic right of protest as Naxals and terrorists has lost all right to rule over those citizens, he said.

AAP: CM advocating corporates' cause

• AAP MP Bhagwant Mann said instead of advocating the cause of corporates, the CM should ask them to pressurise the Modi government to withdraw the farm laws
• He said the AAP fully supported the cause of agitating farmers and he had raised their voice in Parliament in the presence of PM Modi
• The AAP, meanwhile, decided to contest the upcoming local body elections on the party symbol

He hit out at BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh over his alleged description of farmers in Punjab as `Urban Naxals'. He pointed out that such protests by angry farmers were taking place not just in Punjab but also in BJP-ruled states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

"Do the farmers protesting in all these places look like Naxals to you? And does that mean law and order has collapsed everywhere?" he asked Chugh.

Lambasts Chugh

Protests by angry farmers are taking place not just in Punjab but also in BJP-ruled states such as Haryana and UP. Do the farmers protesting in all these places look like Naxals to you? —Capt Amarinder Singh, CM

Instead of heeding to the plea of the 'annadatas', the BJP was busy trying to demean them and stifle their voice, he said. Pointing out that various farmer leaders had themselves appealed to agitating farmers not to disconnect power to mobile towers, the Chief Minister said this clearly showed that what was being witnessed on the ground in some places was a spontaneous manifestation of the wrath of farmers who see a dark future ahead as a result of the new farm laws.

The Chief Minister noted that the farmer leaders themselves were stressing the need to keep protests peaceful. "Is that the language of Naxals, as Chugh is alleging?" he said.

from The Tribune https://ift.tt/38H3Gjp