Chandigarh, January 18
Condemning the issuance of notices by the NIA to several farmers and their supporters in the midst of the anti-farm laws agitation, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said such arm-twisting tactics would not weaken the resolve of farmers to fight for their rights and their future.
“Do these farmers look like secessionists and terrorists?” asked the Chief Minister, slamming the BJP-led government at the Centre for resorting to such reprehensible and oppressive tactics in their desperation to undermine the peacefully protesting farmers’ fighting spirit.
“These measures will not succeed in destroying the resolve of the farmers, rather the Centre will only end up provoking a stronger reaction from them,” Capt Amarinder said and warned that BJP’s most powerful minds would not be able to control the situation if things got irretrievably out of hand.
It was obvious, said the Chief Minister, that the BJP-led NDA government neither cared for the farmers and their concerns, and
nor understood their psyche. “Punjabis are fighters by nature. They are imbued with the fighting spirit which makes them among the best warriors in the world,” he said, adding
that the Centre’s coercive actions would only provoke the farmers from Punjab to react negatively.
Capt Amarinder expressed shock over the Government of India’s unrelenting opposition to the farmers’ genuine and justified demands and its total failure to empathise with the cause and concerns of the farmers who have been braving the cold in Delhi, with many of them succumbing to the harsh weather and prolonged exposure.
