‘BJP leaders’: AAP on ‘locals’ who pelted stones on farmers at Singhu border

More than 40 people have been arrested for violence that broke out on Friday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of orchestrating Friday’s violence at Delhi’s Singhu border. The AAP, which is in power in Delhi, shared photos of some of the “locals” with top leaders of the BJP.

“They were not locals, they were BJP leaders. BJP workers pelted stones on farmers who were protesting peacefully for the last 60 days,” the party said on its official Twitter handle, sharing photos of two of the “locals” with Union home minister Amit Shah and Lok Sabha MP Manoj Tiwari, respectively.

On Friday, several people, claiming to be “locals,” had pelted stones at the farmers protesting against the three farm laws passed by the BJP-ruled Centre last September. The police had to resort to tear gas shelling to restore order, and a policeman was seriously injured after one of the farmers lunged at him with a sword. More than 40 people have been arrested, including the farmer who injured the police official, the Station House Officer (SHO) of a local police station.

Opposition parties, including the AAP and the Congress, have also accused the BJP of being behind the violence during Tuesday’s “kisan tractor parade”. Actor Deep Sidhu, one of several protesters present at the historic Red Fort when a Sikh religious flag was hoisted there, has been accused of being a BJP “mole.” This came after pictures surfaced on social media of Sidhu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP MP Sunny Deol, who is himself an actor. Deol has already distanced himself from Sidhu.

After Friday’s incident, many of the farmers who had left the borders, including those who had come only for the tractor parade and those who left due to the Republic Day violence, have started to return to Delhi. The strength at the Ghazipur border has already swelled, after developments there on Thursday night. Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri borders have been the epicentres of the anti-farm laws’ protests.