Chandigarh, October 7
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and other party leaders were detained at Saharanpur on the Haryana-UP border where they staged a dharna on Thursday. Later, they were taken to the Sarsawa Police Station by the UP Police.
Sidhu has demanded the arrest of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son in connection with the death of farmers during violence in Uttar Pradesh, saying he would go on hunger strike if action is not taken against him by Friday.
Sidhu said he was ready to sacrifice his life for the cause of farmers.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and Cabinet Ministers Pargat Singh, and Vijay Inder Singla, besides former ministers Balbir Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Kangar and Sunder Shyam Arora were among the leaders present.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi also joined Sidhu for a brief period when the march was about to start in the morning from Mohali.
Instead of holding the party flags, Sidhu and other leaders could be seen holding the flags associated with farmers agitation as slogans of ‘Kisan-mazdoor ekta zindabad’ were raised.
Earlier in the day, farmer unions surrounded the cavalcade and then the vehicle in which Sidhu was on his way to Mohali at Dhareri Jattan toll barrier and showed him black flags. It was after much requests by Sidhu that the farmers allowed him to pass through.
Sidhu had resigned from the post of Punjab Congress chief on September 28 but it wasn’t immediately clear if the resignation was withdrawn.
Before the protest march Thursday, Sidhu slammed the BJP-led government in UP over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
He said Punjab Congress and party MLAs are standing firmly with the farmers.
He asked why UP authorities hadn’t taken action against Mishra’s son even after an FIR was lodged in the matter.
“Are union minister and his son above the law and constitution?” he asked.
“This fight is for our farmers,” he said, adding: “If UP police do not arrest the union minister’s son, I will go on hunger strike. It is my ‘vachan’ (promise).”
Later, he said, “If the arrest is not made till tomorrow (Friday), or he does not join investigation, I will go on a hunger strike.”
Sidhu called Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi “saviours of democracy.”
Earlier, Punjab Congress working president Sukhwinder Singh Danny said they would stage a sit-in wherever they were stopped from heading towards Lakhimpur Kheri.
Congress legislator Sunder Sham Arora said they were ready for courting arrest if prevented from going to UP.
Four of the eight people who died in Sunday’s violence in Lakhimpur Kheri were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area.
Two BJP workers, Mishra’s driver, and Raman Kashyap, a journalist working for a private TV channel, were also killed in the incident.
While the first three were allegedly lynched by agitating farmers, the scribe, according to his father, died after being hit by a vehicle when he was covering farmers’ protest against Maurya’s visit to Mishra’s native place.
No arrests have been made in connection with the case so far.
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