‘BJP trying to discredit farmers’ movement’

Jalandhar, February 2

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman and vice-president Himanshu Pathak on Tuesday said the BJP’s IT cell was trying to discredit the farmers’ movement in the country.

Addressing a press conference, Pathak said, “We are all watching how the harmony among Sikhs, Hindus and Dalits is being disrupted by the BJP in this historic peasant movement.” He said, “Under a conspiracy, the BJP sends goons in disguise to local people among farmers and these goons beat up farmers in front of the police and then in the name of law and order, farmers are being targeted by the police, which is actually a ‘Gujarat model’.

He said, “Now it is being applied to the people of Punjab and farmer organisations and journalists opposing it are being targeted.”

Pathak said soon after the Delhi riots, the BJP had taken out a tiranga yatra there and now the same model was being implemented in Punjab also. “The BJP IT machinery is already working on a war footing to discredit the movement by maligning Sikhs and trying to spread hatred, especially against Sikhs. Special campaigns are underway to discredit the character of the movement,” he said.

He said, “Some people who use India’s national secret information to carry out their agenda are not on the NIA’s radar, but ordinary farmers agitating for rights there are called by the NIA (National Investigation Agency). Such a move can be used by the government to discredit the movement or to disrupt Hindu-Sikh relations across Punjab and India.” Pathak called Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal a clown and back-up team of the BJP and RSS and warned them against trying to fool the farmers of Punjab. He said on 26 January, the Delhi government provided DTDC buses to the police to stop the farmers of Punjab. He said Kejriwal should explain why he provided these buses to the police. — TNS