Sidhu, Punjab cabinet ministers detained on UP border
Darpan News Desk IANS, 07 Oct, 2021 11:03 AM
Chandigarh, Oct 7 (IANS) Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu along with Cabinet ministers and leaders were detained on Thursday on the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh border in Saharanpur as they were heading towards Lakhimpur Kheri where nine people were killed in violence that erupted during farmers' protests on Sunday (October 3).
They have been staging a sit-in protest at the border.
The leaders have been demanding the arrest of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish Mishra in connection with the death of farmers during the violence.
Sidhu threatened to go on hunger strike if action is not taken against the minister's son by Friday.
He was accompanying Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and cabinet ministers Pargat Singh and Vijay Inder Singla, besides former ministers Balbir Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Kangar and Sunder Shyam Arora and other leaders.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi also joined Sidhu for a brief period when the vehicular march started in the morning from Mohali, near here.
The BJP, which had been politically attacking Amarinder Singh in the last several years, has launched blistering attacks against Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and the Congress high command (Gandhi family) with the help of Amarinder Singh's recent comments against Sidhu and the Congress.
Rahul Gandhi met Channi along with the party's Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat and General Secretary K.C. Venugopal late on Thursday. Before that, Rahul held a separate meeting with Rawat.
According to orders, he would also be the Principal Secretary, Personnel and Vigilance, besides Financial Commissioner, Development, and Principal Secretary, Food Processing, Horticulture and Governance Reforms and Public Grievances.
Senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Grewal and Daljit Cheema on Tuesday said it was most unfortunate that even after admitting that some wrong elements wanted to defame the 'kisan sangharsh', Rajewal had neither secured an unconditional apology from those guilty of hooliganism nor subjected them to the process of law.
The Prime minister further said that the visit would be an occasion to consolidate relations with our strategic partners - Japan and Australia - and to take forward our collaboration on important global issues. In a departure statement, the Prime Minister said he will be visiting the US from September 22-25 at the invitation of President Joe Biden.
The Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it is an important development in support of reaching the 40 per cent vaccination target in all countries by the end of this year.
