Govt conspiracy to discredit us, we have videos too: Farmer leaders
A day after the Delhi Police alleged that the farmer leaders propped up militant elements to provoke farmers to break through barricades and take the law into their hands, the latter has hit back and claimed that there was a government conspiracy to discredit their movement.
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FollowDarshan Pal, who was named by Delhi police chief S N Shrivastava in his media briefing on Wednesday evening, said the violence in the national capital on Republic Day was part of a government conspiracy.
Another farmer leader Shivkumar Kakka said that they had video clips that expose how the conspiracy was hatched to defame the farmers' movement.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha alleged that anti-social elements like actor Deep Sidhu attempted to "torpedo" their peaceful agitation under a conspiracy. They, however, asserted they will not let the government and forces inimical to the peaceful movement to break their struggle.
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"The tractor parade was hit by a government conspiracy. Deep Sidhu is an RSS man. Police let him go after he hoisted a religious flag at Red Fort," Darshan Pal alleged at a press conference.
Backing up the farmer leaders' conspiracy charge, the Shiv Sena claimed that the BJP-led central government provoked the farmers to commit violence so that the sustained farmers' movement against the farm laws could be discredited.
Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Saamana noted, "Now, BJP has heavily come down on the agitating farmers. The programme to enter Delhi was a pre-planned programme and the farmers' movement has gone into the hands of the terrorists, according to BJP's intelligence system."
"The crowd who stirred in the Red Fort was led by a young man named Deep Sidhu. It has been revealed that this Sidhu belongs to the camp of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah. BJP's Punjab MP Sunny Deol has a close relationship with Sidhu. Farmer leaders like Rajesh Tikait say that Sidhu had been talking about revolt and separatism for the last two months by entering the crowd of farmers," it said.
Meanwhile, farmer unions have cancelled their planned foot march to Parliament on February 1 when the Union Budget 2021 would be presented.
Instead, the farmers said they would hold public meetings and a hunger strike on January 30, on Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary.
Amidst the blame game, two pleas have been filed in the Supreme Court over the tractor rally violence. One of the petitions seeks the setting up of a commission under a retired apex court judge to probe the violence while the other urges the Apex court to direct the media not to declare farmers as "terrorist" without proof.
