CHANDIGARH: Senior BJP leader from Punjab and party’s national executive committee member Harjit Singh Grewal praised Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann after Punjab Police removed the agitating farmers from the Shambhu and Khanauri borders.
“I am not like other leaders. In my view, I would say that Mann Sahib has given proof of being a good administrator. Punjab was suffering heavy losses due to the farm agitation. My constituency is Rajpura, and you can come and see that people were complaining that their businesses got ruined. After suffering losses, the businesses closed. Today, I stopped at Cheema Haveli in Sirhind, and the owner came requesting me to get the road opened. I told him that it appeared Mann Sahib would get the road opened today,” Grewal told the TOI.
On the other hand, BJP leader and Union minister of state for railways and food processing Ravneet Singh Bittu, said he was shocked to hear the news of Punjab Police action. Bittu, in a written statement, said, “The sudden action of the Punjab govt is aimed at sabotaging the talks. BJP will continue the talks with the farmers and is committed to the welfare of farmers.” He stated that Mann betrayed the farmers. Arvind Kejriwal, who is camping in Punjab for the last three days, hatched the conspiracy against farmers, he said, adding that the “action was taken to appease urban people in the wake of the upcoming byelection in the Ludhiana West seat.”
Bittu released two videos after the written statement. In one video, he asked Mann that he “should have shown a spine when Kejriwal ordered to clear all (farm agitation)”. Bittu told Mann, “Whatever little respect of yours was left, you have destroyed that”. In the other video, Bittu said since the agitation had been ended, he had requested Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini to remove the wall on Haryana side to open the road for Punjabis. Bittu said it will take three days to remove the wall on Haryana side.
Betrayal, cries SAD
SAD on Wednesday called the arrest of farmer leaders highly undemocratic and a betrayal.
Daljit Singh Cheema, in a post on X, said, “The state govt has stabbed the farm leaders in the back just to please their political mentors in Delhi. By doing so, the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP govt wants to crush the farmers’ agitation. It has exposed that the Centre & Mann govt are hand in glove with each other,” he stated, adding that the SAD demanded the immediate release of all farm leaders without delay.
Senior SAD leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia accused Mann-led AAP govt of “trying to suppress the voice of Punjab farmers by arresting top leaders of farmer associations.” In a written statement, he said CM Mann “backstabbed farmers of the country.”
