New Delhi, Mar 20: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday attacked the BJP and AAP over eviction of farmers from Shambhu and Khanauri protest sites, saying it appears that “two anti-farmer parties” have now joined hands against the country’s food providers.
Kharge alleged that both the BJP and the AAP 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.
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.
Following the eviction of protesting farmers from the Shambhu border, Haryana security personnel on Thursday morning started removing cemented barricades, which were erected to prevent the Punjab farmers from heading to Delhi.
At the Shambhu border, JCB and other machines 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 the state border with Punjab with cement blocks, iron nails and barbed wire to scuttle any attempt by the farmers from Punjab to move towards the capital as part of their ‘Delhi Chalo’ programme.
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.
Meanwhile, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha announced to hold 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 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab for evicting the protesters and detaining farmer leaders on Wednesday. (PTI)
