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‘Cheap way to garner public sympathy’: Rakesh Tikait on breach in PM Modi's security
Describing the incident as a ‘stunt,’ the BKU leader said that the Prime Minister should not have gone to Punjab.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the breach in latter's security in Punjab, describing it as a ‘stunt to garner public sympathy.’
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“We are hearing since yesterday, that he (PM Modi) said that he made it back alive. Therefore, this looks like a stunt. If he survived, then why he went there in the first place? This is nothing but a cheap way to garner public sympathy,” Tikait, the BKU spokesperson said, according to news agency ANI.
The farmer leader, one of the major faces of the ‘suspended’ agitation against the three central farm laws, was referring to a remark reportedly made by PM Modi to officials at Bathinda airport, when he asked them to thank their chief minister (Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi) that he (Modi) was able to ‘return alive.’
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“Central government says there was a security lapse, while the Punjab government says that the Prime Minister did not go there because chairs in his rally were empty. Both are only trying to defend themselves. The Prime Minister should not have gone there,” Tikait further said, talking about the war of words that has broken out between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre and the Congress-led state government, as well as the two parties, over the lapse.
On Wednesday, in his first visit to poll-bound Punjab since the repeal of the farm laws, Prime Minister Modi was scheduled to launch various projects and address a public rally in Ferozepur. The programme was, however, cancelled after the breach took place, for which the Union home ministry has sought a detailed report from the Punjab government.
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The Channi government has formed a 2-member committee to look into what went wrong. A public interest litigation (PIL) over the ‘serious and deliberate lapse’ has been filed in the Supreme Court as well, which the apex court will take up on Friday.
