New Delhi: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has refuted reports which claimed that it has reached out to the Sikh community through emails on behalf of the Modi government amid ongoing farmers’ protests against the Centre’s three farm laws.  “A news report has been published in a section of media that Govt has reached out to Sikhs through IRCTC emails. It may be informed to all that comments of IRCTC have not been quoted correctly & mails have been sent to all irrespective any particular community”, the subsidiary of the Indian Railways issued a clarification.

“This is not the first instance. Earlier also, such activities have been undertaken by IRCTC to promote government welfare schemes in the public interest”, it added.

Earlier, it was reported that IRCTC emailed to its customers the 47-page booklet — ‘PM Modi and his government’s special relationship with Sikh — as part of the government’s ‘public interest’ outreach to make people aware of the bills and also to squash myths about them, officials said. The booklets were in Hindi, English and Punjabi.

The emails, which were discontinued on December 12, were sent to the entire database of IRCTC, where passengers key in their details while booking tickets, the officials said. Officials also said that the move to send out the emails was a conscious choice as part of a communication strategy for public interest.

The booklet, released by Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Hardeep Singh Puri on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti on December 1, talked about the justice given to the 1984 riot victims, FCRA registration granted to Sri Harmandir Sahib, Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, no taxes on langar, the Kartarpur corridor among other things under 13 heads.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, are currently staying put at Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in protest against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

They have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations. However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture.