No help from farmer unions: Deceased Navreet Singh’s grandad

Jalandhar, February 16

Hardip Singh Dibdiba, grandfather of Navreet Singh who died riding a tractor on January 26 in New Delhi, today said farmer unions should own up those who were part of the agitation and became victims of the ‘state-sponsored violence’.

Yet to respond

No one from the farmer unions contacted me till his bhog. A day after he died, I called up two union leaders, they did not take my call... there is no response from them even till today. Hardip S Dibdiba, Navreet’s grandfather

Addressing a press conference accompanied by MLA Sukhpal Khaira here, Hardip Singh said, “I do not want to demoralise the union leaders but they must do some course correction and move forward. They have to learn lessons from the consequences of events and only then they can become strong. They must fight for the release of activist Nodeep Kaur. They must support people like Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana.”

He said, “These people had joined the agitation at their call. So what if our children stepped a little ahead during the agitation? They must understand that the crowd that moved towards Delhi had no one to guide them. If they come out now and support their own teams against the Centre’s propaganda, victory will be of farmers.”

Hardip Singh alleged his grandson had been gunned down. “Even that day, there was no claimant for Navreet’s body. When I reached there, people asked me what should be done. I said Navreet was a part of the agitation and his body is the property of agitation, so they should decide but no one from the union came forward”, he said. Khaira said, “Soon we will form an action committee to take up cases of all victims of agitation. Their families need our support. Nineteen protesters are still missing. We need to work for them too.” — TNS