New Delhi: Amid outrage over the video of Karnal Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Ayush Sinha’s instruction to baton charge the protesting farmers, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister  Dushyant Chautala on Sunday (August 29) promised action against Sinha. 


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Condemning Sinha over him purportedly directing police officers to smash heads of the protesting farmers, Chautala said, “The use of such kind of words by an IAS officer for farmers is condemnable. Definitely, action will be taken against him.”


The Deputy CM added, “In a clarification, he (Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha) said he didn't sleep in the last two days. He probably doesn't know that farmers also don't sleep on 200 days a year.”



In a video that has gone viral on social media, Sinha was allegedly caught on camera saying, “No one on this side of the barricade should be seen without their heads smashed.” At least 10 people were injured on Saturday as police lathi-charged a group of farmers who were heading towards Karnal to protest against a BJP meeting. The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, state BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar and other senior leaders of the party.


The video has generated a lot of criticism from the opposition and several netizens who have slammed the SDM for his alleged call for brute force. Expressing shock at the "brazen brutality" of the Haryana Police, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Saturday termed the lathicharge on farmers a "government-sponsored attack" and said such a "vicious assault" was not only unacceptable but outright condemnable.


Meanwhile, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has defended the police action against protesting farmers in Karnal. He claimed that assurances of a peaceful protest were given, however, stones were pelted at cops and a highway was blocked disrupting traffic.


On Sunday, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait met the injured farmers and rebuked the “brutal lathicharge” by police.


(With agency inputs)


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