On Monday evening, Deep Sidhu took over the main stage at Singhu, and along with gangster-turned-social activist Lakha Sidhana, announced they would hold the march "inside Delhi". Singhu is one of the several points outside Delhi where the protesting farmers are forced to stay as the government has blocked their entry into the city
Sidhu and Sidhana reportedly had support from certain extreme Left-leaning elements among the 32 organizations in the plan for not following the agreed upon Tractor March route. They had a plan ready by Tuesday morning. First, they started a march of their own much before the official march of the farmer unions, and positioned their 'henchmen' in large numbers at a road turning towards central Delhi. From there they directed other tractors towards the Red Fort instead of the agreed route. At one point of time, volunteers of farmer unions tried to intervene in this, but they were outnumbered by the Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana group.
This contingency had been foreseen by farmer unions long back. Around a month ago, during a meeting of the 32 farmer unions, one of the leaders had termed Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana as "enemies of this struggle".
Since the start of the agitation, the common concern among the 32 organizations was that the two were pushing the "struggle" towards a communal path.
According to Rajinder Singh Deepsingh Wala, vice-president of Kirti Kisan Union, the government has been trying from the very beginning to paint this movement in a communal color. They are master of religious games, but in this struggle led by farmers, they are for the first time at the receiving end. Deep Sidhu has served them well.
Deep Sidhu, who has acted in a few Punjabi films, surprised everybody last year when he raised a question over the leadership of the farmer unions and announced to launch his own 'morcha' at Shambu.
During the last Lok Sabha election, Deep Sidhu was campaigning to strengthen the BJP, and had even posed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as he was the election agent of the party's Gurdaspur candidate Sunny Deol. He was accused of being an "RSS agent" by farmer unions in Punjab, Tribune India concluded.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
