Facilitate our meeting with PM, we want to ask him questions: Farmer leaders to police

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, May 22

Talks between farmer unions and the Punjab Police for the smooth conduct of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Patiala for the Lok Sabha poll campaign made no headway on Thursday.

The farmer unions are insisting that the police/government or BJP leaders should facilitate their meeting with the Prime Minister on issues concerning the farmers, while the police have tried to convince the farmers that a meeting is not possible due to security issues.

Tejveer Singh, spokesperson for farm unions, said, “We have asked for an interaction with the PM where we will ask him questions regarding farmers’ issues. If the administration can’t facilitate it, the BJP leaders should do it. Otherwise, our planned protest march to Polo Ground, the venue for PM rally, stands as scheduled.”

He said no talks will be held today unless there was a positive response from the administration.

Police officials said that PM Modi’s visit to the state was highly sensitive, especially because of the January 2022 incident when farmers blocked the cavalcade of the PM. Moreover, they said, election campaign was no time and place for such interaction.

Tejveer Singh said they were holding the 100th day of their protest today only because the PM had not given them time for the meeting and also, the BJP-led Haryana Government had sealed the border to stop the farmers from marching to New Delhi. “Now, he is visiting us for seeking votes but he should talk about our issues with us in public,” he said.

The police are, meanwhile, trying to break the deadlock by sending senior police officials involved in such talks earlier. The role of the AAP Government will also be crucial as the BJP has alleged that the Punjab AAP is not stopping farmers from staging dharnas and marching towards Delhi.

The AAP and the BJP are locked in a bitter campaign over the arrest of AAP national chief Arvind Kejriwal and other party leaders.