MLA Arun Narang
JALANDHAR: The issue of thrashing and stripping of Abohar MLA Arun Narang in Malout may have been between farmers and BJP, with several local leaders and members of a farm union being named in the FIR, yet there appears a consistent attempt to give it a communal colour and make it a Sikhs versus Hindus issue. There have been hate messages against Sikhs on social media platforms after the incident, some even referring to the massacre of November 1984 and several branding farmers as terrorists and Khalistanis.
Though farmers accused of assaulting Narang came from diverse communities and at least one prominent among them is a Brahmin, BKU (Sidhupur) block president Lakhanpal Sharma, yet nothing seems to be stopping a set of netizens from making it a Sikhs versus Hindus issue.
Kin of farmers who committed suicide leave for Tikri border
JALANDHAR/BATHINDA: The farm groups’ ‘Dilli Chalo’ protest against the three central farm laws appears to attracting farmers and non-farmers alike in Punjab. It is gathering pace even over 20 days after its start and despite the December chill and some protesters’ deaths. Farm union leaders said they have been going by ‘one person from one family policy’, but people have been flocking to Delhi on their own.
On Tuesday, widows of farmers who committed suicide due to debt or other agriculture-related issues, left for Delhi’s Tikri border to highlight the agrarian crisis, carrying photographs of their deceased family members. They will stay for some days in the pandals of farm organisation BKU (Ekta Ugrahan). District and tehsil units were asked to prepare lists of farm suicide-hit families, asking the families to get ready with details like when the farmer had committed suicide, the reason and way of committin