A day after Nihang Sikhs brutally lynched a Dalit labourer named Lakhbir Singh at the farmer protest site at Singhu-Kundli border, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman Vijay Sampla has come out to condemn the heinous crime. The SC panel chief has slammed the ‘farmers’ who have been camping at the border areas protesting against the agricultural laws.
Sampla said that it was not correct of the farmer leaders to wash their hands of the entire incident. “If they (accused) are sitting with them in protest for 10 months and staying with them, then they are part of that protest only”, Sampla was quoted by ANI as saying.
The spot where they hanged him is also near the stage. Whatever incident occurs there they (Farmer) are only responsible for it. Their role is same as that of culprits: Vijay Sampla, Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes pic.twitter.com/8PN4oGFAzZ
— ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2021
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman added that the location where the Dalit labourer was hanged was close to the stage where the farmers had been protesting. In that situation, whatever incident occurs there, the protesting farmers are only responsible for it, added Vijay Sampla.
The angry chief asserted that the farmers are as much the culprits as the Nihang Sikhs. “Their role is same as that of culprits”, said Sampla.
Terming the act of barbarism a “heinous Talibani crime”, the NCSC chief said: “After watching a video that went viral, it seems activists of the farmers’ organisations sitting on the protest have no fear of the law. No matter how big the mistake, no one has the right to kill anybody”.
“Singhu Border is the main hub of the farmers’ protest where the leaders and workers of various organisations have deployed 24-hour security. Even then, the Dalit man was brutally beaten, his had chopped off, brought near the same platform and then tied up with a rope and hung upside down, while the activists of farmer organisations acted as mute spectator,” said Sampla.
He expressed shock that the leaders of SKM, who otherwise issue press statements on trivial issues in a jiffy, took almost 12 hours to hold a press conference on the murder of the Dalit man.
Notably, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the collective farmer union that was formed by multiple farmer unions supporting farmer protests against the Agriculture laws, had washed its hands off the murder of Lakhbir Singh at the Singhu border. SKM claimed the group of Nihangs has no connection to the organization.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked the Haryana Police to take strict action against those behind lynching a man at a farmers’ protest venue at Kundli near the Delhi-Haryana border.
The NCSC chairperson also sought a preliminary report from the Haryana Police within 24 hours.
