Bashing the Centre over its ill-treatment towards the protesting farmers and lack of facilities at the farm law protest sites, former union minister and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday questioned the government on security measures that were in place on Republic Day when the farmers’ tractor march took a violent turn. Barricading the borders, deploying heavy police personnel and depriving the farmers of basic facilities like food, electricity, she accused the government of doing all this as if they were ‘enemies.’
“Concrete, spikes, trenches, barbed wire, trucks, barricades & heavy deployment of police in anti-riot gear- where was all this when required on Jan 26? Today food water electricity has been cut off for those who ensure National Food Security as if they are enemies of the state!,” Badal wrote on Twitter.
Ms Kaur further said that farmers' protest has been going on for the past two and a half months now, but the government is not talking on the issue, while no discussion is being raised in the Parliament House. “Shocked at how the police at the borders have been weaponized as if Pakistanis are sitting and protesting here. They have turned the place into a fortress” she said in Hindi in a video posted alongside the tweet.
Her statement comes after the backdrop of multi-layered security arrangements raised at Ghazipur, Singhu, and Tikri borders to stop farmers entering the national capital.
Kaur has been supporting the farmers' protest and earlier slammed Prime Minister Modi over his proposal to farmers that the government is just a call away to discuss their issues. She said so many have died during the protest, hundreds of them sitting at their doorsteps to be heard and he (Modi) is still waiting for a call?
“In protest against anti-farmer ordinances and legislation. Proud to stand with farmers as their daughter and sister,” Badal had tweeted after resigning from her post when the farm bills were cleared in the Parliament.