Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu denies allegations of instigating farmers

This comes in the backdrop of massive protests over farm laws which turned into violence yesterday and led to severe clashes between policemen and farmers. This incident drew sharp criticisms from leaders from all political parties condemning the violence and the Red Fort incident.

NEW DELHI: Noted actor Deep Sidhu, a name that has been in news for all the wrong reasons,  has now refuted all the claims saying that he has not instigated the crowd to become violent towards policemen. He further denied removing the national flag.

Initially, after admitting that he was allegedly present at the incident, the Punjabi actor  reiterated that hoisting the ‘Nishan Sahib’ flag, was not meant to demean the country’s national flag and had put up the flag as a "symbolic protest."

"To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislation, we put up 'Nishan Sahib' and a farmer flag and also raised the slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta," news agency PTI quoted Sidhu as saying. 

This comes in the backdrop of massive protests over farm laws which turned violent on Tuesday and led to severe clashes between policemen and farmers. This incident drew sharp criticisms from political leaders, with the Congress' Shashi Tharoor saying he supported the farmers' protests from the start but cannot condone "lawlessness".

"Most unfortunate. I have supported the farmers’ protests from the start but I cannot condone lawlessness. And on #RepublicDay no flag but the sacred tiranga should fly aloft the Red Fort," the former union minister said on Twitter, tagging a tweet that carried a video of the incident.

Sidhu, who seems to be sharing a good rapport with BJP has been accused of sympathizing with pro-Khalistan supporters. However, he had categorically said that this incident is unfortunate and should not be given any communal colour or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners.  

Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP, had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers' agitation.