Rejecting as completely baseless and malicious all allegations and reports to the contrary, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said there was no question of deputing police officers to negotiate with farmers protesting at the Delhi border.

Pointing out that he had made it categorically clear that the ball was in the Centre’s court, with the Punjab government having no role to play in the negotiations with farmers, the CM ridiculed the charges being flaunted by the Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party leaders on the basis of unfounded reports in a small section of the media.

With farmer protests going on in his state since long before the agitation started at the Delhi border, he had naturally asked police officers to give him regular intelligence reports and updates on the situation not just from the national capital but also across Punjab, Amarinder pointed out, trashing the twisted and senseless interpretation being given to the presence of a few Punjab Police personnel at the farmers’ protest site.

It was the job of the state police to keep tabs on the evolving situation, and it was his job, as both CM and home minister, to remain updated about all developments, he added.

“Anyone who believes that a couple of police officers can negotiate with the farmers or persuade the farmers leaders to accept the Centre’s suggestions on amendments to the Farm Laws is really naive,” Amarinder remarked.
And where is the question of him (Captain Amarinder) coming into a negotiation process in which the top central government leadership is currently engaged?, he asked.

Amarinder said both Sukhbir Singh Badal (SAD chief) and Arvind Kejriwal (AAP chief and Delhi CM), as well as their party colleagues, were resorting to lies and deceit in their desperation to cover up their own failures in the entire crisis triggered by the farm laws.

Pointing to Sukhbir’s ridiculous claim that the resolutions passed in the Punjab Assembly against the three farm bills had not been sent to the Governor, he quipped that the SAD president had clearly lost it. “Or perhaps he is suffering from serious amnesia since his party colleagues, including his own brother-in-law Bikram Majithia, had accompanied me to the Governor’s House for submitting the resolution and the three State Amendment Bills,” remarked the CM.