Chandigarh: Actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu is in the eye of a storm for being among the protesters who put up a religious flag atop the Red Fort on Republic Day. Many farmers’ bodies blamed Deep Sidhu for inciting protesters to head towards the Red Fort during the farmers’ tractor parade Tuesday. They also accused 36-year-old Sidhu of allegedly trying to defame the farmers’ peaceful agitation. The agitations are against the agri reforms introduced by the central government.
Sidhu has joined the farmers’ agitation against the new farm legislation last year. However, he has been considered by several farm bodies as an ‘agent’ of the government.
However, Sidhu has sought to defend the action of the protesters at the Red Fort. He said they did not remove the national flag and had put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ flag as a symbolic protest.
“Deep Sidhu is an agent of the government. He did it at the behest of the Centre to defame the farmers’ agitation,” alleged Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan.
“He (Sidhu) took youth towards the Red Fort by misleading them. We never allowed people like Deep Sidhu on our stage. We knew that he could bring disrepute to the agitation. We never trusted him,” Sukhdev pointed out.
Also read: Hoisting Sikh ‘religious’ flag atop Red Fort condemned by SKM
Bhartiya Kisan Union (Chaduni) leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni also condemned the action of Deep Sidhu. He asserted there was no plan of the farmers to go to the Red Fort.
“Whatever Deep Sidhu has done, we condemn it in the strongest possible words. We feel that he was an agent of the government. He always speaks against the farmer leaders and incites people against them,” said Chaduni in a video message.
Before associating himself with the farmers’ agitation, Sidhu, hailing from Punjab’s Muktsar district, had acted in a few Punjabi films. He has also studied law.
Sidhu got into the limelight when he joined a dharna at Shambhu near Haryana border in support of the protesting farmers last year. The dharna received massive support from farmers especially the youth. 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.
