PM Modi’s Ferozepur visit was cancelled on Wednesday. The Union Home Ministry blamed the Punjab government for the “major security breach” and sought a detailed report, asking it to take strict action.
The farmers, who had blocked the flyover during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ferozepur visit in poll-bound Punjab, on Thursday the police officials had asked them to vacate the road but they couldn’t believe them and thought that they were “bluffing” about the PM’s visit.
“SSP Ferozepur asked us to vacate the road saying that the Prime Minister was going to the rally venue by road. We thought he was bluffing. We thought the Prime Minister would come by air and not by road. We really didn’t know that PM Modi was coming. We thought it was impossible,” Bhartiya Kisan Union (Krantikari) chief Surjit Singh Phool told reporters.
PM Modi’s Ferozepur visit was cancelled on Wednesday. The Union Home Ministry blamed the Punjab government for the “major security breach” and sought a detailed report, asking it to take strict action. The ministry also said that the Punjab government was informed well in advance about PM Modi’s change of route.
However, the Punjab government has refuted the allegations. It has also constituted a high-level committee to probe the breach, saying the report will be submitted in three days.
‘Cheap way to gain sympathy’
BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Thursday alleged that the “security lapse” was nothing but an attempt by PM Modi to “gain public sympathy”. Slaming both the Centre and the Punjab government, Tikait said that PM Modi should not have gone to Ferozepur.
“When PM was coming to Punjab, what arrangements did he make regarding security? The news about him saying that he survived makes it clear that it was a stunt. It was an attempt to find a cheap way to gain public sympathy,” he told news agency ANI.
“Central government says that there was a security lapse and the Punjab government says that Prime Minister did not go there because chairs in his rally were empty. Both are only trying to defend themselves,” he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the BKU leader had said that one needs to investigate whether there was a security lapse or the farmers were expressing their anger against the Centre.
“There is talk about rally being cancelled due to lapse in the security of PM Modi ji. On the other hand, the Chief Minister of Punjab is claiming the PM returned witnessing empty chairs. Now it is necessary to investigate whether there is a lapse in the security or the farmers were expressing their anger,” he had tweeted in Hindi.