Amid outrage over flag incident, actor Deep Sidhu says didn’t take away tricolour, it was solely a ‘symbolic protest’

Amid a large outrage over protesters hoisting a non secular flag on the Red Fort in the course of the tractor rally on Republic Day, actor Deep Sidhu, who was current in the course of the incident, sought to defend their motion, saying they didn’t take away the nationwide flag and had put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ as a symbolic protest.
The ‘Nishan Sahib’ flag, an emblem of Sikh faith, is seen in any respect Gurdwara complexes.

In a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday night, Sidhu claimed it was not a deliberate transfer and that they shouldn’t be given any communal color or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners.
“To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislation, we put up ‘Nishan Sahib’ and a farmer flag and also raised the slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta”, mentioned Sidhu.
“The flag represents the country’s unity in diversity”, he mentioned whereas pointing in the direction of ‘Nishan Sahib’, the triangular saffron flag with the symbol of ‘Khanda’, a two-edged sword, Chakra, a disc, and two Kirpans that cross one another on the handles.
He acknowledged that the nationwide flag was not faraway from the flagpole on the Red Fort and that no person raised a query over the nation’s unity and integrity.
Leaders throughout the political spectrum condemned the violence and the Red Fort incident, with the Congress’ Shashi Tharoor saying he supported the farmers’ protests from the beginning however can not condone “lawlessness”.
“Most unfortunate. I have supported the farmers’ protests from the start but I cannot condone lawlessness. And on #RepublicDay no flag but the sacred tiranga should fly aloft the Red Fort,” the previous union minister mentioned on Twitter, tagging a tweet that carried a video of the incident.
Sidhu, who has been related to the farmers’ agitation for the final many months, mentioned “anger flares up” in a mass motion like this when the real rights of individuals are ignored.
“In today’s situation, that anger flared up”, he mentioned.
Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab throughout 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP, had distanced himself from Sidhu in December final 12 months after he joined the farmers’ agitation.
Swaraj Abhyan chief Yogendra Yadav, who’s among the many leaders spearheading the agitation in opposition to the farm legal guidelines, mentioned Sidhu had been disassociated “from our protest right from the beginning”.
“When he participated in a protest at Shambu border and seeing their activities, the farmer unions had decided to keep them away from our movement,” he mentioned.
The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella physique of 41 farmer unions that’s main the protest in opposition to the three central farm legal guidelines, additionally disassociated itself from those that indulged in violence in the course of the tractor parade and alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their in any other case peaceable motion.
Sidhu, nonetheless, mentioned that Tuesday’s incident shouldn’t be seen in isolation as they’ve been holding their protest for the final six to seven months.
“And it (today’s incident) was a continuation of that”, he mentioned.
Sidhu mentioned the protesters didn’t go to Delhi to harm anybody or injury public property, nor they’d any weapon.
“We held a peaceful protest without destroying anything or causing any damage to the public property we exercised our democratic right peacefully”, he claimed, including, “If we think one person or a personality could do such a big mobilisation of people, then it will be wrong”.
Wielding sticks and golf equipment and holding the tricolour and union flags, tens of hundreds of farmers atop tractors broke obstacles, clashed with police and entered the town from varied factors to put siege to the Red Fort.

Over 80 police personnel have been injured within the violence.
Farmers, largely from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been tenting at a number of Delhi border factors, together with Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding a whole repeal of three farm legal guidelines and a authorized assure on minimal help value for his or her crops.