Farmer’s death during protest against BJP candidate Preneet Kaur sparks row in Punjab

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Chandigarh: Surinderpal Singh, a 60-year-old farmer, died Saturday during a protest by members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Preneet Kaur in Patiala.

The incident took place Saturday afternoon in Sehra village in Ghanaur when Preneet Kaur — a four-time Patiala MP — was visiting villages and her cavalcade was surrounded by protesting farmers showing black flags. 

Multiple videos of the incident show that her vehicles were surrounded by agitated farmers. The farmers are seen being pushed away by some others even as the police are seen trying to control the situation. 

In the evening, Preneet Kaur issued a condolence message to the family, mourning the “unfortunate death of a farmer during a protest”. “I am deeply saddened by the demise of the farmer, Surinderpal Singh, who unfortunately died today,” she wrote, adding that she and her family “have always stood by the farmers and we will continue to do so”.

She said, given the long association of her family with the farmers, “they are all like our brothers and sisters to us”.  She promised that she and her family would stand by them till their last breath.

However, Jagjit Singh Dallewal, president of the BKU (Sidhupur), has alleged that the farmer’s death took place after BJP supporters pushed the protesters around roughly.

Dallewal and other farmer leaders reached the deceased farmer’s village to show solidarity with his family in the evening. In a post on Facebook, Dallewal wrote that the BJP workers had turned the protest into a “second Lakhimpur Kheri”.

As the incident snowballed into a major political issue — with the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) attacking both the BJP and the ruling AAP over it — Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar countered the allegations, saying the farmer collapsed on the spot on his own.

Jakhar put out a video message saying it was unfortunate that the farmer had died but it had nothing to do with anyone, including the police, pushing him during the protest. 

“Certain sections are trying to gain political mileage out of the unfortunate incident. A video of the incident clearly shows that the farmer fell down on his own and died during treatment,” said Jakhar. He added that while in a democracy, the farmers had the right to protest and candidates had the right to canvass, the farmers’ unions and their leaders should take extra precautions with regards to the health of the protesters. 

Farmers across Punjab are protesting against BJP candidates, not allowing them to enter villages, showing them black flags and confronting them with questions. On some occasions, these farmers also have used vehicles to follow a candidate out of the village. Apart from Preneet Kaur, farmers have disrupted the campaigns of the BJP’s Amritsar candidate, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and its Faridkot candidate, Hans Raj Hans, among others.

SAD and Congress attack BJP, AAP

Apart from attacking the BJP for its allegedly anti-farmer stand, opposition parties took on the ruling AAP led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, accusing it of being hand-in-glove with the BJP.

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the BJP and the AAP were allied together in being “anti-farmer” and were continuously denying justice to them.

Another SAD leader, Bikram Singh Majithia, wrote on X that the farmer had died following a scuffle during the protest. He also put out a video of the incident. He alleged that the death was a result of Mann’s secret alliance with the BJP in Punjab as he was allowing all this to happen.

“The Bhagwant Mann government did not do anything when Shubhkaran Singh died (at the Shambhu border) and another farmer, Preetpal Singh, was badly beaten up,” wrote Majithia on X, demanding the registration of an FIR in the case. Twenty-two-year-old Shubhkaran Singh died in February allegedly as a result of action against protesting farmers by the Haryana Police at the Punjab-Haryana border.

State Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who is also the party’s candidate from Ludhiana, wrote on X that both the AAP and the BJP were responsible for the farmer’s death.

“How many lives of farmers does the BJP want? The level of politics of the BJP has fallen so low that it has no value for the lives of farmers. First it was the BJP and now it is the Aam Aadmi Party that is taking the lives of our farmers,” he wrote.

Also read: How guava ‘orchard owners’ & Punjab officials ‘siphoned off Rs 147 crore’ in compensation

 

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