Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for their “provocative and inflammatory actions”, aimed at disturbing the state’s law and order, in the wake of the attack on its state unit president Ashwani Sharma’s motorcade, for which the police has already identified several farmer union members as being responsible.
Slamming Sharma’s rabble-rousing statements and baseless accusations against the Punjab Congress, the Chief Minister said that the BJP Punjab unit president seemed bent on spreading false propaganda to promote the interests of his party.
These actions were clearly aimed at diverting the attention of the people from the farmers’ angst against the BJP over the Farm Laws, he said.
The Chief Minister asserted that the people of Punjab, including the farmers, will not be misled by these irresponsible and instigatory statements and actions, which the BJP’s Punjab leadership was resorting to with total lack of concern about the possible aggravation of the COVID pandemic it could lead to in the state. ?
Capt Amarinder said that the farmers were angry and anguished at the farm laws enacted by the BJP-led Central Government, and instead of empathizing with them and conveying their pain to the high command, the BJP state leadership was trying to exploit the incident of October 12 to earn political brownie points. Contrary to the falsehoods Sharma was trying to spread, the State Government had been taking all steps to ensure the security of the BJP leaders amid the Kisan protests, he added.
After the incident of October 12, Sharma’s security had been beefed up and a total of 16 Punjab Police security personnel, including Commandos, are deployed with him currently, he added. In fact, said the Chief Minister, all BJP leaders and office-bearers in the State had been provided adequate security for the past eight to 10 days, since the farmers’ agitation gained momentum in the state.