Raising its voice against the illegal arrest of social activist Nodeep Kaur by the Haryana police, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema, deputy leader of opposition Sarvjeet Kaur Manuke and party's youth wing co-president Anmol Gagan Mann, went to meet her at Karnal jail on Tuesday. However, the Haryana government prevented them from meeting Nodeep Kaur by giving illogical reasoning. Addressing the media on the occasion, the leaders said that to show solidarity in her struggle, they had decided to meet Nodeep Kaur and wanted to let her know that the people of her state are with her.However, the BJP government in Haryana and the BJP CM has put the state of Haryana in a state of internal emergency, they said. "Jail rules are being flouted and illogical reasoning is being given to prevent us from meeting Nodeep Kaur," added the leaders. They said that despite an application being submitted by them, the Haryana police was stating that meetings had been cancelled due to Covid. "We would like to ask the Haryana police where is Covid when relatives meet normal inmates? Why is Corona a problem when it comes to meeting Nodeep Kaur. What is the BJP government trying to hide?," said the leaders. Further lashing out at Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, the AAP leaders said that the daughter of Punjab had been detained in Karnal jail for over the last 30 days. They said that the news of detention had gotten international attention but the CM of her own home state seems to have no care.
"We have been appealing to the Captain Amarinder to talk to his counterpart in Haryana and demand the immediate release of Nodeep Kaur but he has neither taken any initiative in this regard nor has he made efforts to know about her condition or if she needs any help," added the leaders. Slamming Captain Amarinder for failing on every front, the leader said that being the Chief Minister of the state, Captain had failed in protecting its citizens. They said that today the people of Punjab were out on streets protesting for their rights and survival but when they were being suppressed; Captain Amarinder was doing nothing to intervene. They said that as the principal opposition party in Punjab, the AAP would provide all possible help to Nodeep Kaur and her family.Taking a dig at the BJP led government in Haryana and at the centre, the AAP leaders said that the BJP government had been using force to suppress any sort of protest and voice of the activists. They said that when the farmers started their march to Delhi, the Haryana government put up many barriers to stop them from entering Delhi. "They used water cannons on the farmers during the peak of winters, lathicharged them and imprisoned some farmers in stadiums. They also dug out roads so that the farmers cannot enter and tried whatever they could to stop the protests," they added. The leaders said that once the BJP did not succeed, they started slandering the farmers by calling them as 'andolanjivi', 'bicholia', 'Khalistanis' and what not, to suppress their movement."This similar attitude led them to arrest Nodeep Kaur and detain her for over 30 days. Her only crime was that she was protesting for the rights of the factory labourers," said the AAP leaders. They said that in the current Modi regime, there is no space for protest, no voices are heard and all voices are just suppressed. "What's more shameful is that even Punjab CM Captain Amarinder seems to be subservient to PM Modi. He is acting like the CM of the BJP and taking no cognizance of the struggle, his own people are going through," they added. They said that all Captain Amarinder was doing was sitting in his posh farm house and whiling away his time. The leaders said that the AAP will always keep fighting for the rights of the farmers and activists. "We are a party that came out of an agitation and we empathise with their struggle. We will stand by them till the end," they added.