New Delhi: The Congress’ youth wing activists Monday morning set a tractor ablaze near India Gate. The incident took place a few hundred metres from the Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament. The youth wing activists were protesting against the contentious farm laws. The move attracted the BJP’s diatribe as it accused the Congress of trying to ‘mislead’ the farmers.
The BJP said the opposition Congress has ‘shamed’ India with the ‘drama’ aimed at ‘gaining publicity’.
Five of the activists, from the Punjab unit of the Youth Congress, were arrested, police said. Around 20 people carried a tractor on a truck to Rajpath, Man Singh Crossing, unloaded it from the truck and set it on fire, they said. According to police sources, the Punjab Youth Congress activists entered the Lutyens’ Delhi in a Punjab police gipsy.
Fire officials said they were informed about the incident at 7.42am and two fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The blaze was doused and the tractor was removed soon, police added.
The incident comes amid protests by farmers and opposition parties across India over the contentious farm legislations that were passed in Parliament last week.
Youth Congress media in-charge Rahul Rao said activists of its Punjab unit demonstrated at India Gate on the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
“Our country thrives on the blood and sweat of our farmers. From fighting the British to feeding the entire nation, our farmers are the nation’s backbone,” the Youth Congress tweeted. “On Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary Youth Congress set ablaze a tractor in protest against the government’s anti-farmer bills,” it added.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said an Innova car used in the act has been impounded. “A case under Section 3 of the Epidemic Act, section 51(B) of the Disaster Management Act, Section 4 of the Damage to Public Property Act and IPC sections has been registered at Tilak Marg police station and five people have been arrested,” the DCP said.
Condemning the incident, several senior BJP leaders, including Union Ministers, hit out at the Congress. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar accused the opposition of ‘misleading’” the farmers over the farm reforms Acts.
“The Congress shamed the country today. Bringing tractor in a truck and then burning it at India Gate is a drama enacted by the Congress and we condemn it. The (Congress) party has been trying to do politics in the name of farmers, and it has been unmasked. It has enacted a drama for publicity,” Javadekar told reporters.
BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav dubbed the Congress as ‘anti-farmers’. He said the farmers venerate their farm equipment and will not set tractors on fire.
“This burning of tractors by the Congress and other opposition parties in the name of farmers is shameful,” Yadav said. “They should not use India’s food producers for politics,” he added.
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat took a swipe at the Congress. He said it is protesting against farmers’ freedom in the name of Bhagat Singh by burning a tractor. Its conspiracy has been unmasked,” he said.