Chandigarh: The AAP Saturday asked the Punjab government to deploy the state police to provide security to farmers protesting at Delhi borders, alleging the agitators were being “attacked” as the BJP was trying to “suppress” their movement with the help of its aides.
However, the ruling Congress ridiculed the demand of the main opposition party, saying there was not an “anarchist” government in the state, “like Arvind Kejriwal (was) in Delhi”.
Aam Aadmi Party leader and the party’s Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha alleged the BJP was attempting to “suppress” the ongoing farmers’ movement with the help of its aides and claimed that farmers were being “attacked” at the protest sites, charges coming after violent clashes between farmers and “locals” at the Ghazipur border and stone-pelting at the Singhu border.
Questioning the role of the Delhi Police, Chadha accused it of not taking action against miscreants involved in violent incidents at the Singhu border, where the farmers have been sitting in protest for over two moths now
Under such circumstances, we cannot expect the Delhi Police to protect our farmers and thus with full responsibility, we demand Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to provide police security to the farmers at all the borders,” he said in a statement here.
Police had fired teargas shells and resorted to baton charge Friday to break up a clash between farmers and a large group of men claiming to be local residents who hurled stones at each other at the Singhu border.
Ridiculing AAP’s demand, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sunil Jakhar said even the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cannot enter a state without permission.
“The Congress is not running an anarchist government in Punjab like Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, where street politics by the ruling party had long replaced real governance,” Jakhar alleged.
“Don’t you know anything about the principles and rules of police jurisdiction? the PPCC chief asked and told Chadha to stop making a mockery of the sensitive and grave situation prevailing in the national capital with his frivolous and senseless statements.
“How can a state police force enter Delhi or any other state, when even a central agency like CBI has no such authority or jurisdiction,” asked Jakhar.
The Congress government in Punjab believes in rule of law unlike the AAP government in Delhi which clearly had no “scruples” about “trampling” the law in favour of “political theatrics and drama”, he added.
Further taking a dig at the AAP leader, Jakhar asked, “Why doesn’t your AAP government in the capital send out the Delhi Home Guards, who report directly to the state government, to protect the farmers sitting at your doorstep?”
“And with 66 MLAs spread around the city, why don’t you help out the farmers instead of wasting your time giving advice to the Punjab government,” he further asked.
Farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been camping at Delhi’s borders for several weeks, demanding the repeal of the farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price for crops.
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