Wary of having their fight hijacked after the January 26 violence in Delhi, Punjab farmers feel that hardliners should not try to push their ideology forward by fighting the Center’s controversial farm laws. They said such elements only ended up strengthening the government’s hands and giving a legitimate struggle a bad name.
Dasuya (Hoshiarpur) farmer Lakhbir Singh, who regularly visits the Singhu border protest site, said separatist or Khalistani elements should stay away from the movement.
“If they are really sympathetic to the protesting farmers, they should stop making statements according to their own ideologies. The government is trying to find one or another loophole from day one in our movement and such erroneous statements by these separatists would be linked to our pious agricultural movement by the government, ”he said.
Another farmer, Rajinder Singh Thakur, who has been to the protest site several times, said that the movement is entirely farmers’ and those sitting at the protest sites are poor farmers. “If some selfish people, who have their own agenda, are trying to take advantage of this movement, then they must forget about it and stay away. That would be real support from them, ”he said.
Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, General Secretary of Bharti Kisan Union (BKU) Ugrahan, said: “During the last 77 days since the farmers started their protest at the Delhi border, the central government has every excuse to make this protest fail. They called this Khalstanis-backed movement Naksalis and now they say there is some pro-Khalistani organization behind the social media support for this movement. The government has adopted all the tactics to defeat this movement, but we do not care if someone, regardless of their ideology, is expressing their solidarity with our movement, as this is everyone’s democratic right. The only thing that matters to us is that such support should be limited to things related to the agricultural movement. If someone is trying to fulfill their wishes through this movement, then they must know that it is a farmers movement and their hidden agendas cannot be fulfilled here. “
He further said: “After seeing the unity of farmers across the country now, if someone is saying that the farmers’ platform can be used to fulfill their dreams, this also exposes the motive behind their support for this movement. Agricultural organizations have nothing to do with these people. In fact, these groups are helping the government’s agenda. “
Satnam Singh Sahni, General Secretary of BKU (Doaba), said: “These separatists could be the government’s puppets to harm the agricultural movement, but everyone knows that these people have their own hidden agendas and their support is not without reason either. But farmers have nothing to do with them and if they believe that they are really supporting our movement, their distance from our movement, even on social media, would be of great help to our struggle, as this will not give the government any reason. to attack us unnecessarily. “
Another farmer leader, Kulwinder Singh from Kirti Kisan Union, added: “The government can say anything and can link our movement to anyone, but we know that it is just a farmers’ struggle and now it is not just a Punjab farmers movement, but of farmers across the country. The statements of the separatists cannot harm our movement, as they are being exposed. They are hurting themselves quite a bit by using our names and the same is the case with the government which so far has not been able to prove any link between us and the separatists. “
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