Farmers’ protests | In Punjab, agitation reaches doorsteps of BJP leaders

Punjab Chief Minister urges protesters to show restraint so that the harmony in the State was not put at risk

Farmers from Punjab arrive in New Delhi on January 1, 2021 to join the ongoing protest.

Protesting against the

Centre’s farm laws , several farmers associated with different unions picketed outside residences and commercial premises of Bharatiya Janta Party leaders in Punjab on Friday.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said attempts by some protesters to enter the homes of political leaders and workers in support of the farmers’ agitation went against the spirit of ‘Punjabiyat’ and could not be condoned.

Condemning such behaviour, the Chief Minister appealed to the protesters not to cause any harassment or inconvenience to families of political functionaries of any party. “Invasion of privacy of people bring a bad name to the peaceful agitation of the farmers and defeat its very objective,” he said, urging protesters not to take the law into their hands.

After months of showing exemplary restraint and not indulging in any violence or lawlessness in Punjab, as well as at the borders of the national capital, some protesters were losing their restraint despite being asked by farmer leaders to keep the protests peaceful, said Captain Singh.

The Chief Minister cautioned that such attempts of forcible entry into the houses of any political functionaries, or picketing of their homes, had the dangerous potential of vitiating the atmosphere of peace and destroying the harmony amongst people of diverse castes, religions, communities etc., a move that was contradictory to the Punjabi spirit of harmony and unity.

Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Punjab unit of Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee, said that farmers in different districts picketed under its banner outside the premises of BJP leaders and outside corporate houses, who supported the new farm laws.