The ruling BJP and main Opposition Congress traded barbs over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reported ‘security breach’ in Punjab where he had gone to address a rally in Ferozepur on January 5. The rally had to be cancelled as the PM was ‘stuck’ on a flyover for 15-20 minutes as the road ahead was blocked by the farmer protesters.
After landing at Bathinda’s Bhisiana air force station, Modi was on his way to the National Martyrs Memorial at the Hussainiwala border – where he was scheduled to reach by helicopter but took the roadways due to inclement weather. The incident took place on his way to the memorial.
PM Modi on his return to Bhatinda airport told officials there, “Apne CM ko thanks kehna, ki main Bathinda airport tak zinda laut paaya (Say thanks to your CM that I reached Bathinda airport alive).” As expected in view of the forthcoming elections, the BJP launched a campaign to milk sympathy from the incident that forced Modi to leave without addressing a rally in Ferozepur.
The Congress accused PM Modi of “faking security threat” to derive political mileage in poll-bound states while farmers union dubbed the life threat as a “completely concocted theory”.
PUNJAB CM’S REACTION
Facing flak from the BJP over the “security lapse” during the PM’s Punjab visit, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi alleged that Narendra Modi’s “life threat gimmick” was aimed at “toppling a democratically elected government” in the state.
Channi further said the Prime Minister is a respected leader of the nation but a leader of his stature should not engage in “such cheap theatricals.”
The “false pretext” on which the PM cancelled his visit was part of a “larger conspiracy to defame Punjab and murder democracy in the state on lines of what was done earlier in Jammu and Kashmir,” the CM alleged.
He questioned how the Prime Minister’s life could be jeopardised when the demonstrators were more than a kilometre away from him. At the place where Modi’s cavalcade stopped not even a slogan was raised, then how his life could have been threatened, he added.
Channi reminded Modi that the Punjabis have sacrificed their lives for unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country and added that they could never pose any danger to the life and security of the Prime Minister.
CONGRESS ATTACKS BJP
Channi’s party Congress also came down heavily on the PM and his party.
While addressing a Press conference in the national capital, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera accused the PM of lowering India’s image and insulting Punjab and ‘Punjabiyat’ by suggesting that his life was in danger in the poll-bound state.
Khera said, “You went to Pakistan suddenly and you felt safe there. But you feel unsafe in your own country and because of hatred you have for your own people, you are defaming the whole region…You cannot demonise, insult Punjab and Punjabiyat.”
Taking exception to PM Modi’s purported comments to officials at Bhatinda airport, Khera said, “Modi is not just BJP’s Prime Minister, but he is the PM of the whole country. People of Punjab know the value of their PM’s life.” Responding to BJP’s charges of putting the Congress in a spot over the security breach in Punjab, Khera said India was not a banana republic and no one should dent the morale of security forces. The Congress leader further said that the PM could have waited for 15 minutes to allow Punjab Police to clear the protesters from the road but he instead chose to defame Punjab.
Recalling the similar incidents that had happened with former PMs late Indira Gandhi and late Rajiv Gandhi, Khera said, “When Indira and Rajiv had faced such a situation, they had engaged with protesters, but Modi “hates” questions, protesters, Opposition and accountability.” Referring to a few incidents in which the PM had faced protests during his visits and getting stuck in traffic jams, Khera said, “Modi never made comments as he did at Bhatinda airport when girl students of Banaras Hindu University protested during his visit to Varanasi in September 2018 or when his cavalcade had taken a wrong route in December 2017 in Uttar Pradesh.”
Recalling the 2017 Gujarat poll campaign, Khera said, “Modi had accused former PM Manmohan Singh, former Vice President Hamid Ansari and former Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor, among others of conspiring with Pakistan. Late Arun Jaitley had to express regret in Parliament for this. When polls are around, just see how some people lower the standards.”
BKU’S CLARIFICATION
Surjit Singh Phool, the chief of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Krantikari) that led Wednesday’s blockade, stated: “The Ferozepur SSP (senior superintendent of police) asked us to vacate the road, saying that the Prime Minister was going to the rally venue by road. We thought he was bluffing to clear the road for BJP buses heading for the rally. There were helipads ready and the Prime Minister was scheduled to fly. We had no idea he was taking the road.”
FARMERS SEE A PLOT THEREIN
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, amalgam of 40 framers unions, also reacted on the events related to the visit of the Prime Minister to Punjab. It said the threat to the life of the Prime Minister seems “completely concocted”.
The SKM has provided some details of the incident:
- On receiving the news of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to Punjab on January 5, 10 farmer organisations affiliated to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha had announced a symbolic protest for the arrest of Ajay Mishra Teni and other outstanding demands. For this purpose, programmes of protests and effigy burning were announced at village level across Punjab on January 2 and at district and tehsil headquarters on January 5. There was no programme to stop the Prime Minister’s visit or obstruct his programme.
- As per the pre-determined schedule, peaceful protests were held at every district and tehsil headquarters of Punjab on 5th January. When some farmers were stopped by the police administration from going to the district headquarters of Ferozepur, they protested by sitting on the road at many places. Of these, was that flyover of Pyarayana too where the Prime Minister’s convoy came, stopped and went back. The farmers protesting there had no concrete information that the Prime Minister’s convoy was going to pass through. They got this information from the media after the Prime Minister’s return.
- It is clear from the video of the occasion that the protesting farmers did not even make any effort to go towards the Prime Minister’s convoy. Only a group with BJP flag and raising “Narendra Modi Zindabad” slogan had reached near that convoy. Therefore, the threat to the life of the Prime Minister seems completely concocted.
- It is a matter of great regret that to cover up the failure of his rally, the Prime Minister has tried to malign both the state of Punjab and the farmers’ movement by using the pretext of “somehow his life was saved”. The whole country knows that if there is a threat to life, then it is for the farmers, from the criminals like Ajay Mishra Teni becoming ministers and roaming freely. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha expects the Prime Minister of the country to not make such irresponsible statements keeping in mind the dignity of his post.”
SKM released two videos to contradict the BJP’s version of events. In the first video, it can be clearly seen that only BJP workers had reached the PM’s cavalcade. In another video of the same location and same time where BJP workers are shouting slogans of BJP Zindabad near the PM’s car and whole convoy can be seen and heard.
Farmer leader Dr. Darshan Pal insisted that had Modi been determined to reach Hussainiwala, his cavalcade could easily have diverted to one of the many metalled rural roads with which rural Punjab is crisscrossed.
REAL REASON BEHIND
However, the real issue behind is being glossed over. From the eyewitnesses’ account, public did not turn to the venue in large numbers. Before the rally, BJP Punjab president Ashwani Sharma had claimed in a press conference that this would be the biggest rally ever in the history of Punjab. For the last one week, BJP workers had been issuing press notes stating that around five lakh people would be attending the rally, whereas roughly some 5,000 people showed up, turning the rally into a damp squib. The BJP had arranged 3,485 buses and 5,000 other vehicles to ferry people from different areas.
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
Patiala-based Gurshamshir Singh, who attended the BJP’s rally at Ferozepur, said that right from the beginning till the end, the venue was never filled to its capacity. “Initially people were coming but even then, the gathering was one-third of the entire seating arrangement. I met many outsiders, including a group of young boys, dressed up in traditional attire of ‘Dhoti-Kurta’ who claimed themselves to be from a Gurukul. People started leaving the venue when it started raining and finally the rally was called off. The rally simply failed.”
BJP’S SPIN
Frustrated with failure of the rally, the BJP tried to give a communal spin by posting a video on social media on the Punjab incident, titled “understand the chronology of the attack on PM Modi” – a phrase Amit Shah had made infamous by referencing the Centre’s citizenship forays.
In the video, questions were raised on who was behind the attack on Modi. “Was it the plan of Pakistan? Was it the plan of Khalistanis? Was the Congress extending support to the plan?” the video asked.
The video text concluded that Modi had “foiled the conspiracy of Pakistan, Khalistani supporters and the Congress”.
THREAT TO SIKHS
Even a BJP MLA from Bithoor in Kanpur, Abhijeet Singh Sanga, wrote: “Indira Gandhi samajne ki bhul mat karna, Sri Narendra Damodar Das Modi naam hai, likne ko kaagaz aur padne ko itihas nahi milega. [Don’t think Modi is Indira Gandhi. His name is Sri Narendra Damodar Das Modi. (You) won’t get paper to write and history to read.]”
Dubbing the Prime Minister’s security lapse as a ‘Repeat of 1984,’ Prof Manjeet Singh of Panjab University, said, “Talking about slain Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and targeting Punjabis will amount to aggravating the political situation in Punjab, which is quite disillusioned at the moment.”
Manjeet Singh also termed Modi’s remark at Bathinda airport as ‘very inflammatory’.