Violence during tractor rally has stained farm protest: Raut

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut onTuesday condemned the violence during a tractor rally takenout by farmers in Delhi as national shame which stainedtheir protest against the new agri laws, but said the Centre,too, will have to take responsibility for the developments.

Interacting with media persons here, Raut said itis the arrogance of the central government which has led tothe deteriorating situation in Delhi and asked it tointrospect as to why the law and order in the national capitalcollapsed.

Raut said resignations would have been demanded hadsuch violence erupted on some other partys watch at theCentre.

A tractor march meant to highlight farmers' demandsdissolved into anarchy on the streets of Delhi on Tuesday ashordes of rampaging protesters broke through barriers, foughtwith police, overturned vehicles and delivered a nationalinsult -- hoisting a religious flag from the rampart of RedFort, a privilege reserved for India's tricolour.

Without naming the BJP, he asked whose resignationthe ruling party will now seek and sarcastically said if itwill pitch for US President Joe Biden, Congress chief SoniaGandhi or Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to stepdown after the violence.

What happened in Delhi, what I am seeing, I call ita national shame, Raut said.

The Rajya Sabha member said the violence on thestreets of the national capital does not behoove theprotesters and the government.

The Shiv Sena leader said that the farmers protestedpeacefully till now near Delhi borders and wondered whathappened suddenly that the demonstrators lost their patience.

It is a question why the anarchy spread and whatwas the government doing? Was the government waiting for thisincident or this day? It was the responsibility of the government toresolve the issue and stop the tractor rally if the governmentknew that the farmers may lose their patience, Raut said.

Such a black day would not have dawned had thegovernment tried to understand the sentiments of farmers intime and withdrawn the new laws, Raut added.

The Shiv Sena MP asked if it is some conspiracy thatanarchy spreads on the streets of Delhi and that Punjab losesits peace.

The Shiv Sena condemns what happened at the RedFort. This should not have happened today. I agree this hasstained the farmers protest.

But it is not only one party which is responsiblefor it. The government, too, will have to take responsibilityfor it, he added.

Without naming the BJP, a former Sena ally, Raut saidin the wake of violence, the NDA lead constituent would havedemanded resignations had some other party been in power atthe Centre.

Now whose resignation those in power and leaders ofthe ruling party will demand for the collapsing of law andorder in Delhi? Will they ask for Pawar sahabs resignationfor todays incident? Or Mamata Banerjee (Bengal CM) orMaharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray or Joe Bidens? he asked.

Raut said the situation in the country can deterioratedue to the prevailing atmosphere in Delhi and asked thegovernment to bring it under control immediately.

The government should accept the demands of farmers(of scrapping the new laws). But you want the situation in thecountry to deteriorate.

''You dont want peace to prevail. You want todeliberately create an Emergency-like atmosphere, he alleged.

To a question about the agitating farmers earlierassuring the Delhi Police that there would be no violenceduring the tractor rally, Raut said Uttar Pradesh cops weregiven similar promises before the Babri Mosque was demolished(in Ayodhya in December 1992).

We all had assured the police when the Babri Mosquewas demolished in Ayodhya. It was an intelligence failure then(during Babri Mosque demolition), too, and it is anintelligence failure here (now), too, Raut said.