Taking serious note of the attacks on farmers and disturbances to suppress the ongoing farmers’ movement, the Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday sought Punjab Police’s security for the farmers sitting on the Delhi borders while Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amaridner Singh has trashed thedemand as “arbitrary, absurd and irrational”.
Capt Amarinder said that Arvind Kejriwal’s party had clearly lost all sense of Constitutional and legal propriety, and was completely ignorant even on the law laid down by the highest court of the land.
“This demand is not only completely illogical and frivolous, but against all principles and rules of the law,” said the Chief Minister, reacting to a letter received by his office from AAP, calling for police protection of the protesting farmers from Punjab.
Notably, AAP’s Punjab unit co- in-charge and national spokesperson Raghav Chadha has written a letter to Punjab Chief Minister asking him to “deploy Punjab Police personnel at the dharna sites to protect the agitating farmers”.
Chadha, through his letter, stated, “Punjab Police must provide protection to the farmer sisters and brothers, so that no harm was done to them and they could continue to protest against the black farm laws in a peaceful manner. This protection to the farmers is absolutely essential in the light of recent attacks on them by engineered and executed by people from BJP,” he added.
He underlined that for all intents and purposes, Capt Amarinder is the Chief Minister of Punjab and possesses certain responsibilities towards the people of Punjab; towards the ‘annadatas’ of the nation, towards the farmer brothers and sisters.
Slamming Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, Chadha asked Capt Amarinder to advise his leaders to eschew lying in public and embarrassing themselves further. “For some absurd reason, Jakhar had taken a stand that Punjab Police cannot provide protection outside the state. For if it is not a lie, how else does your party explain the fact that every time a neta, officer, or even random protectees of Punjab travel outside the state, the police cover continues to protect them, including that when you travel to the national capital territory of Delhi, your entire cavalcade including gunmen follow you and protect you,” added Chadha.
He said that the excuses given by the Congress and their leader shows Congress’ intent to completely abdicate its duties towards Punjab’s farmers. “Had AAP been in power, we would have already deployed Punjab Police, instead of spreading lies and betraying our farmer sisters and brothers,” the letter stated.
Mocking AAP’s “senseless” demand, the Chief Minister pointed out that, as per a Union Home Ministry directive and a Supreme Court order, the Punjab Police cannot stay in another state for more than 72 hours even for a protectee, which the farmers are in any case not.
“So, this would mean that even if I sign an order today declaring some, if not all, farmers out there as protectees, (which is really neither feasible nor realistic), that would mean the Punjab Police can only be with them for 72 hours and not more,” he added.
“This further means that as Chief Minister of Punjab, which I definitely am for all intents and purposes, howsoever much AAP may wish otherwise, my hands are tied by the law, which your party has clearly no respect for,” Capt Amarinder quipped, ridiculing AAP’s letter, which exposed nothing but “their desperation to seize Punjab’s reins by hook or by crook”.
Hitting out at AAP’s criticism of Sunil Jakhar’s statement on the issue, the Chief Minister said that it was not the Punjab Congress president who was indulging in absurdity but AAP, which clearly does not know the difference between a protectee and a non-protectee citizen.
Capt Amarinder termed AAP’s letter as nothing more than a tactic by the party to divert public attention from its own role in the Red Fort violence, which had exposed the farmers to attacks and victimization by the Delhi Police.
Retorting, Raghav Chadha took a dig at the Chief Minister saying that it was easy to simply abdicate responsibilities by citing laws and judgements. “If there is genuine concern and intent on their part, the law always provides ways and means,” he said.
“Captain Saab, could have simply written to MHA asking for permission to provide protection to the farmers since the Delhi Police is obviously incapable or unwilling to protect them,” he said.
Chadha said that in case Punjab Chief Minister’s only problem was that there is a 72-hour limit, “begin the protection, deploy Punjab Police for at least 72 hours, and in the meantime, get exemption from MHA - and if refused, take recourse against it”.
Daring the Congress party, he said: “Now is the time for Congress and Captain to actually demonstrate their true intent. Deploy your forces for 72 hours at least, to protect the farmers from BJP’s activists and Delhi Police’s apathy by declaring them as protectees. Or is it your claim that your netas and babus are more important than the ordinary farmer – than the annadaata of the nation?”
