Amarinder Letter To PM Capt should refrain from defaming farmers’ stir: Bhagwant Mann

A day after Capt Amarinder Singh cited urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume talks with protesting farmers stating that extremists from across the border and pro-Khalistani groups were trying to exploit the ongoing stir, the BSP and the AAP hit out at the Punjab CM accusing him of trying to derail the agitation against the agri laws.

While Aam Aadmi Party’s state unit president Bhagwant Mann said that Amarinder should refrain from defaming the farmers by calling them extremists or Khalistanis, BSP president Mayawati accused the Punjab CM of pursuing selfish electoral politics.

“The letter written by the Congress CM of Punjab to the PM, expressing various apprehensions about the farmers’ agitation is a conspiracy to defame the movement of the farmers, who are sacrificing their lives to get the new agricultural laws repealed, and pursue electoral politics under its guise. This is most unfair,” Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.

Taking the Centre’s cooperation on challenges faced by the government of a border state is not unreasonable, but pursuing selfish electoral politics under its garb and defaming the farmers’ movement are something the public understands well, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh added.

“The Congress is not going to reap any benefit by doing this,” said Mayawati whose party has entered into an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab for next year’s Assembly elections.

In his letter, Amarinder has cited “heightened cross-border threat and increased drone and other terrorist activities by ISI-backed groups, including plans by Khalistani outfits to target certain farmer leaders”. He warned that powers across the border “may try to play upon the charged emotions of our proud, sincere, and hardworking farmers” of Punjab.

In a statement, Mann said Captain had never once directly told PM that the farm laws were wrong and should be repealed in the interest of the farmers’ but had been making such statements to suppress the movement.

He said that both Amarinder and Modi were hand in glove and were working to suppress the farmers’ movement by opting various tactics.

“Why is Capt Amarinder Singh blaming the farmers when there is no connection between the farmers’ movement and cross border terrorism?” he added.

Further questioning the CM, Mann said whether any action taken by the farmers so far proved to him that they were pro-Khalistan or pro-terrorist. He said that in fact, Amarinder Singh was trying to create a rift between the farmers and the common man by intimidating the people of Punjab in the name of extremism.

Taking a dig at the CM, Mann said, “If half of the number of rounds that he has made to save his seat in the Delhi Darbar would have been made to Modi, then the issue of the farmers could have been resolved.”