Banning protests infringement on democratic rights: BKU

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 14

The Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) has lodged a protest against the move by the state government to ban any kind of protests, saying it was an infringement on their democratic rights. The government has banned all protests in the wake of the fast spreading Covid-19 in the state, also disallowing a gathering of more than five people.

In a joint statement, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president, and Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of the union, claimed that both Centre and state governments were bringing policies and changing rules under the garb of Covid-19, which were anti-farmers. Citing the example of three farm ordinances brought by the Centre, regular hike in price of diesel and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, they said they were well within their rights to protest against these.

“But now we are being told that you cannot gather for protest. Every person is conscious of the spread of pandemic and any protest is planned with social distancing. We refuse to obey these diktats and will continue with our planned protests from July 20-27,” they said.