The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab has run into allegations of bonhomie with the BJP following its crackdown on protesting farmers at the Khanauri and Shambhu borders.
The Congress and the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday alleged that the AAP and the BJP had joined hands against farmers after several agrarian leaders were detained. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote on X: “It appears that two anti-farmer parties have joined hands against the country’s food providers.”
Earlier this month, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann had said that he is the custodian of not just the farmers but the 3.5 crore population of Punjab and that farmers were causing inconvenience to traders, businessmen, students and employees. “Why waste my time on table talk when there is going to be no let-up in dharnas?” he had said.
On Wednesday, the Punjab government drove away farmers who had been protesting at the Shambhu border. Following the eviction from the Shambhu border, Haryana security personnel on Thursday morning started removing cemented barricades that had been erected to prevent the Punjab farmers from heading to Delhi.
At the Shambhu border, JCB and other machines have been deployed to remove the concrete blocks to clear the Shambhu-Ambala road, which has remained closed for over a year. Haryana security officials had fortified the state border with Punjab with cement blocks, iron nails and barbed wire to scuttle any attempt by the farmers from Punjab to move towards the capital as part of their “Delhi Chalo” programme.
Punjab police also resumed its operation to dismantle the remaining temporary structures on the Shambhu border on Thursday to clear the road. The farmers, led by the SKM and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, had been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, 2024, after their march to Delhi was blocked by security forces.
“The country has not forgotten Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, where farmers were fired upon during BJP rule; how the son of a minister of the Modi government crushed farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri; how a farmer from Rajasthan hanged himself at Kejriwal’s rally in 2015 and he remained a silent spectator,” Kharge said.
“Whether it is Modiji’s promise of MSP to farmers or the AAP’s swift implementation of the three black farm laws in Delhi, both these parties have betrayed our farmers,” he said. The 62 crore farmers of the country will never forgive these “anti-farmer parties”, Kharge added.
The AAP reaffirmed its unwavering support for farmers but stressed the urgent need to reopen the Shambhu border to protect Punjab’s economy.
