Amarinder Singh slams Centre for spreading rumours about Punjab farmers

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday slammed the Central government for spreading misinformation about the state's farmers with its "grave and incorrect" allegations of bonded labourers working in the fields.

The Chief Minister termed it yet another conspiracy to defame Punjab's farmers, whom the central government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been persistently trying to malign by dubbing them terrorists, urban Naxals and goons in a bid to derail their agitation against the farm laws, according to the CMO.

Singh also reacted to the Home Minister's letter claiming that the Border Security Force (BSF) had apprehended 58 Indian nationals in the year 2019 and 2020 from the border areas of Punjab, and the detainees had purportedly revealed that they were working with farmers of Punjab as bonded laborers.

According to the MHA letter, it has been further informed that illegal human trafficking syndicates exploit these gullible laborers and Punjabi farmers hook them to drugs to make them work for long hours in their fields.

All the 58 cases alleged by the Centre have been investigated thoroughly and nothing of this kind has been found. "Nothing on record suggests that these persons were forcibly infused with drugs to keep them working for long hours, and moreover, it is incorrect to conclude that the intellectual disability of these people is drug-induced," said Singh.