Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu hits out at farmer leaders, says he is not a `traitor`

NEW DELHI: Punjabi actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, who is facing intense criticism for his alleged role in the Red Fort violence on Tuesday, has hit out at the farmer leaders who have labelled him as a traitor and blamed him for trying to defame their agitation against farm laws.

Sidhu, 36, has instead blamed the farmer union leaders for the chaos and violence during their tractor march and claimed that the youths did not agree to follow the route which was decided by farmer leaders and the Delhi Police.

It may be noted that Deep Sidhu has been accused by several farmer bodies of trying to derail their ongoing agitation and termed him a “traitor”. Sidhu has claimed that people marched towards the Red Fort from all the Delhi borders “on their own” on January 26 and that not many people took the route pre-decided by farmer leaders.

The actor also slammed the farmer leaders for accusing him of being a “BJP and RSS man”. “Will RSS or BJP’s man put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ and a farmer flag at Red Fort? At least think over it,” he asked.

Sidhu has earlier admitted that he was present at the Red Fort when the 'Nishan Sahib' - a religious flag and a farmer flag - were put at the flagpole at the historic monument, triggering massive outrage.

He alleged that a “false propaganda and hatred is being spread’’ being against him. Sidhu made these allegations in the latest video uploaded on his Facebook post.

Further sharing details about what happened on the night of January 25, Sidhu said youth and many people had told farmer leaders that they (farm leaders) had invited them to hold a protest inside Delhi on January 26 and that they had now changed their stand at the last moment.

Sidhu claimed he had reached the Red Fort after its gate was broken. Thousands of people had reached there, but there was “no farmer leader” present there, said Sidhu while claiming that nobody indulged in violence or damaged any public property.

Farmer leaders had on Wednesday given a call for his boycott in the state. They had also dubbed him as an “agent” of the government. On January 26, Sidhu, hailing from Punjab’s Muktsar district, had sought to defend the action of protesters at the Red Fort, saying they did not remove the national flag and had put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ as a symbolic protest.

Sidhu was also a close aide of BJP MP Sunny Deol, who contested from the Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He remained with Deol during the poll campaigning. Deol had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers’ agitation.

(With Agency Inputs)