Just like Republic Day on January 26 this year, the farmers turned the protest at Jantar Mantar violent after a TV18 journalist, Nagendra, was attacked by a lady protester with a stick while reporting.
In a video that has been doing the rounds on social media, the journalist can be seen showing his injuries and saying, “A woman journalist tried interviewing the protestors when a female protester got abusive. When a couple of us went to talk to her, she tried smashing my head with a stick,” Nagendra said.
He also told that there were some people who were hurling abuses at the journalists. “They hurled abuses at a lady reporter who was covering the farmers’ protest and when we asked them to stop doing so, they attacked me with a stick,” the injured media personnel said while showing his bleeding hand.
Minister of State in the Ministry of External affairs, Meenakshi Lekhi referred to protesting farmers as hooligans while talking about an alleged attack on a media person.
“They are not farmers, they are hooligans… These are criminal acts. What happened on January 26 was also shameful criminal activities. The Opposition promoted such activities,” she was quoted as saying.
Bharatiya Janata Party IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya also shared this video on his Twitter profile and wrote, “News18’s cameraman Nagendra beaten up at farmer protest…There is little doubt that this protest is not what it portrays to be. Targeting media, vandalising the Red Fort, holding the capital to ransom, blocking borders at a time when sowing and harvesting seasons are at peak?”
While Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also reached the protest site, he hasn’t condemned the act by farmers yet.
As many as 200 farmers reached Jantar Mantar today to protest against the Center’s three farm laws. Delhi Police also intensified the security at Jantar Mantar by placing barricades and deploying security forces ahead of farmers’ protests.
