Blamed by scarpering 'farmer leaders', Deep Sidhu refutes riot claim; concedes on Red Fort

Amid a mega outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally on Tuesday, actor and activist Deep Sidhu, who was present during the incident and has been blamed by 'apologetic' leaders of the farmers' stir, defended their action. He said that they did not remove the national flag and had put up the 'Nishan Sahib' as a symbolic protest. 

In a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday evening, Sidhu claimed it was not a planned move and that they should not be given any communal colour or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners. As per the latest input, Sidhu has also been summoned by the NIA in a recent and ongoing matter related to the protests. He had earlier also been called by the agency for allegedly attempting to create an atmosphere of fear in line with the radical secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ). 

'We held a peaceful protest': Deep Sidhu

"To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislation, we put up 'Nishan Sahib' and a farmer flag and also raised the slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta," news agency PTI quoted Sidhu as saying. He stated that the national flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country's unity and integrity.

Sidhu also said the protesters did not go to Delhi to hurt anyone or damage public property, nor they had any weapon.

"We held a peaceful protest without destroying anything or causing any damage to the public property. "We exercised our democratic right peacefully," he claimed, adding, "If we think one person or a personality could do such a big mobilisation of people, then it will be wrong."

Members of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took to social media and alleged that Sidhu was affiliated to the BJP.

READ | Cong MP Ravneet Bittu alleges 'Deep Sidhu & gang breached Red Fort to malign farmers'

Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP,  had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers' agitation.  On Tuesday, Sunny Deol reiterated that he has "no relation" with Deep Sidhu.

Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, who is among the leaders spearheading the agitation against the farm laws, said Sidhu had been disassociated "from our protest right from the beginning". "When he participated in a protest at Shambu border and seeing their activities, the farmer unions had decided to keep them away from our movement," he said.

READ | Mamata Banerjee lashes at Centre over Farmer rally violence: 'Protests dealt casually'

The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions that is leading the protest against the three central farm laws,  also disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade and alleged that some "antisocial elements" infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement. Regardless, Yadav, who has taken up a new avatar as a farmer leader over the last few months, has attempted to apologise that the tractor march he had billed as a celebration so easily went out of his and other farmer leaders' control and led to such shambolic and dangerous scenes. 

READ | Congress blames BJP as violent farmers' protest rocks Delhi; says 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'

Wielding sticks and clubs and holding the Tricolour and union flags, tens of thousands of farmers atop tractors broke barriers, clashed with police and entered the city from various points to lay siege to the Red Fort. Over 80 police personnel have been injured in the violence.

Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points, including Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding a complete repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

READ | 83 Delhi Police personnel injured in farmer rally violence; 4 FIRs likely to be registered