Congress MP from Ludhiana and Rahul Gandhi’s close aide Ravneet Singh Bittu was assaulted and his turban tossed by a group of people as he went to participate in the Jan Sansad organised by various organisations at Guru Tegh Bahadur Memorial on farmers’ issues. His turban, along with that of Congress MLA from Zira Kulbir Singh Zira was tossed by the anarchists masquerading as farmers. According to the Indian Express, Congress MP from Amritsar Gurjit Singh Aujla was confronted by a group of protesters. Interestingly, after being manhandled, the Congress leaders are claiming that the agitations have been hijacked by Khalistani elements.
Bittu said those who had attacked him were “goonda elements” and that “it was a plot to kill him”. Talking to The Indian Express, Bittu said, “These are pure goonda elements who attacked us. They don’t know anything about the laws nor they know any spellings. They are the people who are out to defame Punjab.”
The Congress MP added, “There were four persons who were carrying weapons. A man with jeans and red sweat shirt was about to take out weapon when I was being manhandled, but a Sikh man saw this and shouted at him, following which he ran away…These people are 2020 [Referendum] foreign-funded elements who had support.”
The same Ravneet Singh Bittu today calling the protestors as ‘Khalistanis’, was in fact until recently vowing to pile up dead bodies and make streams of blood flow in support of the farmers. “Hum laashon ka dher lagayenge, hum apna khoon bahayenge(We are ready to pile up dead bodies; we are ready to shed our blood)” if the government does not accept our (farmers’) demands. Supporting the farmers’ protests, he further threatened the Centre, saying, “Hum kisi bhi had tak jaane ke liye taiyaar hain” (we are ready to go to any extent) if the government is not ready to give up on the farm reforms.
Interestingly, Bittu, who has now been assaulted by the ‘farmers’ and who until recently was talking about piling up dead bodies and giving fiery statements inciting violence, had, in fact, lost his grandfather Beant Singh (former CM of Punjab credited with ending Khalistan militancy) in a terrorist attack by Babbar Khalsa International.
After having seen the reality of the protests first hand, and having been assaulted at the protest site mercilessly, the Congress MP has got some sense knocked into him, which is why he has come out in the open to claim that Khalistani elements have indeed infiltrated the protests.