Farmers' Tractor Rally: On the occasion of Republic Day, the country witnessed a massive outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally, actor Deep Sidhu, who was present during the incident, sought to defend their action, saying they did not remove the national flag and had put up the 'Nishan Sahib' as a symbolic protest. Also Read: Farmers’ Tractor Rally: Home Ministry Orders To Deploy Additional Paramilitary Forces At Delhi's Sensitive Areas
The 'Nishan Sahib' flag, a symbol of Sikh religion, is seen at all Gurdwara complexes. Earlier, Congress leader Ravneet Singh Bittu in an exclusive interview with ABP News said that actor Deep Sidhu is behind tractor parade violence. In his defense, Sidhu has said that he has been wrongly accused of inciting violence. Adding to this he has also said not to associate Red Fort violence with National Integrity. Role of gangster-turned-activist Lakha Sidhana in R-Day violence is under scanner.
Who is Deep Sidhu?
Born in 1984 in Punjab's Muktsar district, Deep Sidhu studied has studied law. Sidhu was even part of the Bar for a brief duration before venturing into modelling and winning the Kingfisher Model Hunt award. In 2015, Deep Sidhu's appeared in Punjabi movie for the first time. His debut film Ramta Jogi was not a hit but he gained popularity in 2018 with the movie Jora Das Numbria, in which he essayed the lead role of a gangster. Deep Sidhu, who has acted in a few Punjabi films, came to the limelight after he raised questions over the leadership of the farmer unions and announced to launch his own 'morcha' at Shambu.
Deep Sidhu was among many who joined on dharna at Shambu border alongside farmers. As a result of his popularity, the 'Shambu morcha', as promoted by the actor started receiving “live streaming” support from some pro-Khalistan channels as per the report in Tribue India. Deep Sidhu had often voiced displeasure over the 'Leftist' leadership of the unions and also cited the example of Jews and motivate people to fight for a “Sikh homeland”, according to the report.
In the last Lok Sabha election in 2019, the Punjabi actor has campaigned to strengthen the BJP, and also posed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as he was the election agent of the party’s Gurdaspur candidate Sunny Deol.
However, Sunny Deol had expressed dissapointment over the incident and clarified that he has no connection with the actor. The actor said in a tweet, "I had earlier, on December 6 through Twitter said that neither I nor my family has any links to Deep Sidhu."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="hi" dir="ltr">आज लाल क़िले पर जो हुआ उसे देख कर मन बहुत दुखी हुआ है, मैं पहले भी, 6 December को ,Twitter के माध्यम से यह साफ कर चुका हूँ कि मेरा या मेरे परिवार का दीप सिद्धू के साथ कोई संबंध नही है।<br>जय हिन्द</p>— Sunny Deol (@iamsunnydeol) <a >January 26, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He was also accused of being a "BJP-RSS agent but the actor denied these connections.
Although there are doubts over the actor’s political affiliation and questions are raised over his shift from supporting “Hindu Right” to “Sikh Right wing”
What did the actor say about the violence?
In a Facebook LIVE video on Tuesday evening, Sidhu claimed it was not a planned move and that they should not be given any communal colour 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, said Sidhu. The flag represents the country's unity in diversity , he said while pointing towards 'Nishan Sahib', the triangular saffron flag with the emblem of 'Khanda', a two-edged sword, Chakra, a disc, and two Kirpans that cross each other at the handles.
He stated that the national flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country's unity and integrity.