Seated atop tractor, Navjot Singh Sidhu leads protest march against agri Bills

Navjot Singh Sidhu. (File)

CONGRESS MLA from Amritsar East and former Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu participated in a protest march organised by his supporters against the new farm Bills on Wednesday.

The cricketer-turned-politician, who was accompanied by his supporters, sat on a tractor here and held placards that read, “We are united in fight for farmers”, in English and Punjabi.

At the protest, which many local party leaders skipped, Sidhu asked the Union government if roti is no more a essential commodity.

“The government has removed grain and pulses from the essential commodities list. Hoarders have been legalised and now they can sell farmers’ produce at a higher price. People of Punjab should unite and no draconian laws should be allowed to be implemented,” said Sidhu to his supporters, many of whom were carrying placards.

One of the placards said in Punjabi” “Lotus – The biggest mistake.”

Sidhu first foray into politics was on a BJP ticket.

The MLA has been rarely seen in public since he resigned from the Cabinet over differences with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He was stripped of key portfolios in the Cabinet reshuffle in June last year.

The protest march started from Deen Dayal Upadhyay market at Bhandari bridge to Hall Gate Chowk. As always, the MLA’s speech was peppered with couplets.

“The Centre is talking about providing free market to farmers. But in reality government has made farmers labourers. Centre has united Punjab by bringing in the black laws. The salaries of employees have been increased 1,000 times, however, the minimum support price (MSP) of farmers has gone up only 15 times in same period.”

Though he made no direct reference to his own party, he touched upon the issues of sand mining, cable mafia, liquor vend contracts.

He said, “My politics is a politics of solution. I will always talk about the solution. You people can see how I raised the issues of sand mining, cable mafia, liquor vend contracts and now the farm Bills. Every time, my focus was on finding solutions. I hope that people will empower me to solve problems.”

Sidhu spoke on farm Bills for first time only on Tuesday via his YouTube channel.

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