BJP Slams Kejriwal Over Police Lathi-Charge In Punjab

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday came under severe criticism of BJP leaders after visuals surfaced on social media that showed police resorting to a lathi-charge on members of the agriculture labour unions, who were marching towards Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur over demands.

BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa accused Kejriwal of showing his “true face”, and alleged that he was weakening Punjab by investing money of Punjab in the Gujarat campaign. “Kejriwal showed his true form through a lathi-charge on Punjab farmers sitting on dharna outside CM Bhagwant Mann’s house. Instead of giving the farmers their rights, Kejriwal is weakening Punjab by investing the money of Punjab in the Gujarat campaign. Punjabis will give a befitting reply to this injustice of Kejriwal,” Sirsa said in a tweet.

He added that making promises before elections and not fulfilling them later is the “new change” brought by the AAP.

“Instead of giving rights to the farm labourers protesting outside the house, doing lathi charge at them is proof of the atrocities of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann. Making promises before the elections and not fulfilling them after the elections is the change by AAP. People of Delhi and Gujarat should stay away from this deceitful party,” Sirsa said.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged that the AAP was an “anti-people, anti-peasant party”. “The workers who were peacefully going towards the CM’s residence were brutally lathi-charged. It shows the real face of AAP. It stands for ‘anti-People anti-peasant party’. CM Bhagwant Mann is busy campaigning in Gujarat and the farmers of Punjab have been left in miserable condition,” he said.

Hundreds of labourers, under the banner of Sanjha Mazdoor Morcha, were protesting against the Aam Aadmi Party government in support of various demands, including seeking five marla plots for poor Dalits, representation of labourers in village cooperative societies and allotment of one-third of panchayat land to Dalits. Police, however, said they did not lathi-charge the protesting agricultural labourers.