Says, Punjab Police wanted to divert public attention from outrage over manhandling of serving Army colonel
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today condemned the detention of farmer leaders by the Punjab Police saying they were betrayed and backstabbed.
Warring alleged that the farmer leaders were arrested apparently to divert the public attention from the outrage over the brutal manhandling of a serving army colonel by twelve Punjab Police cops recently.
Otherwise, he observed, there was no reason or logic to arrest the farmer leaders when the negotiations between them and the central representatives were progressing well.
It is the worst betrayal with farmers by the Punjab and the central governments, Warring said in a statement, while observing that the AAP government in Punjab and the BJP government at the centre were in collusion to betray farmers.
He said, it was a shocking betrayal that the moment farmer leaders came out of the meeting they were bundled into the police vehicle. “This was a premeditated plan of the state and the central governments to get the farmer leaders at a single place under the pretext of a meeting and then arrest them”, he noted.
The PCC president maintained that arresting the farmer leaders will not lead to any solution. He expressed surprise over the arrests asking what was the need when negotiations were already progressing between the central government representatives and the farmer leaders.
Warring said, it is shocking that the Punjab government arrested Jagjit Singh Dhalewal who has been on fast unto death and despite that he had traveled all the way to attend the meeting.
He expressed full support of the Congress party for the farmers and assured that it will stand by them in all their struggles to ensure that their demands, particularly the legal guarantee to the MSP are met.