Terming the anarchic scenes witnessed at the Red Fort on Republic Day a “conspiracy to malign farmers and their peaceful protest against the three black farm laws”, the Congress party, on Wednesday, demanded the “immediate sacking” of Union home minister Amit Shah.
The Congress also alleged that the violence witnessed at the Red Fort was a “colossal intelligence failure for which the Union home minister is directly responsible”. Deep Sidhu – the Punjabi actor who was seen hoisting the Nishan Sahib flag at the Red Fort as scores of protestors stormed its ramparts – is a “BJP insider who was acting at the behest of Amit Shah as part of a pre-planned conspiracy to discredit the peaceful farmers’ agitation”, the party claimed.
The Congress party has also protested the lodging of FIRs by the Delhi Police against various farm union leaders alleging that “the actual perpetrators of the violence – Deep Sidhu and gang – have been let off.” The party’s chief spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, hit out at the Narendra Modi-led central government and asked “who was responsible for allowing Sidhu, a man photographed with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah several times in the past, and other anti-social elements to enter the Red Fort”.
Stating that the farmers had been agitating peacefully for over two months at Delhi’s borders and had repeatedly asserted that they want to keep their movement non-violent, Surjewala said it needs to be enquired what triggered the sudden spurt of violence on January 26. He added that “responsibility and accountability of the Centre, Shah and the Delhi Police administration” will need to be fixed.
“If the over 60 day-long peaceful agitation by farmers was infiltrated by violent, anti-social elements as part of a conspiracy, why did the intelligence agencies and the Union home ministry not know about this – and if they did, then why didn't they do anything to prevent the anarchy we all witnessed,” Surjewala said.
The Congress spokesperson alleged that the “conspiracy to malign farmers was a replay of similar schemes” that were executed by the BJP earlier during the North East Delhi riots, anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh and the Jawaharlal Nehru University”.
