Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh today hit out at Union minister Prakash Javadekar over his “disgraceful and desperate” attempt to “shift” blame for the shocking Red Fort violence during agitating farmers’ tractor rally in Delhi on the Republic Day.

Capt Amarinder alleged that the 26 January Red Fort violence had been instigated by supporters and members of Javadekar’s own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in collusion with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with the Congress nowhere in the picture.

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“Workers and supporters of BJP and AAP, and not the Congress, have been caught on camera waving the Nishan sahib at the Red Fort,” the CM said in a strong reaction to Javadekar’s “unfounded” allegations against the Congress and his Punjab government.

Capt Amarinder’s comments came even as Delhi Police named Deep Sidhu, a key aide of BJP MP Sunny Deol, as one of the main instigators of the Delhi violence. He charged that

Amrik Micky, an AAP member, was also spotted at the violence site.

Not a single Congress leader or member was seen at the Red Fort indulging in any kind of lawlessness, Amarinder claimed, adding that even farmers were not responsible for the 26th January trouble, which was in fact the doing of anti-social elements who had infiltrated the tractor rally.

The Centre should also get a free and fair probe conducted into the possible role of any political party, or even a third country as is being alleged by the BJP’s own leaders, to ensure that the guilty are punished and genuine farmers are not unnecessarily maligned or harassed, Capt Amarinder said.

The CM also lashed out at the Union minister for accusing top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of inciting the violence, asking “Did the Congress leader ask anyone to climb Red Fort? He did not. It was BJP and AAP men who did that,” he alleged, adding that Rahul had, in fact, promptly condemned the violence and made it clear that violence was no solution to the crisis.

“How could I stop peaceful farmers from going to their own national capital to exercise their democratic right of protest,” the CM further said, reacting to the Union minister’s statement that the Punjab government failed to stop farmers from joining the tractor rally.

The permission for the tractor rally was officially given by Delhi Police and there was no reason for the Punjab government to prevent farmers from joining the rally, said the CM, adding that if there was a ban on the movement of farmers to the Delhi borders, the central government, of which Javadekar is a part, should have directed their BJP chief minister in Haryana to stop them on the way.

If the Centre can put its farm laws — against which farmers have been agitating for months — in abeyance for two years, why it could not simply revoke them and bring fresh legislations after due discussions with the farmers and other stakeholders, the CM added.