Actor Deep Sidhu says did not remove tricolour, it was only a 'symbolic protest'
Amid outrage over flag incident
Chandigarh, Jan 26: Amid a massive outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally on Republic Day, 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.
The 'Nishan Sahib' flag, a symbol of Sikh religion, is seen at all Gurdwara complexes.
In a video posted on Facebook 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.
Leaders across the political spectrum condemned the violence and the Red Fort incident, with the Congress' Shashi Tharoor saying he supported the farmers' protests from the start but cannot condone "lawlessness".
"Most unfortunate. I have supported the farmers' protests from the start but I cannot condone lawlessness. And on #RepublicDay no flag but the sacred tiranga should fly aloft the Red Fort," the former union minister said on Twitter, tagging a tweet that carried a video of the incident.
Sidhu, who has been associated with the farmers' agitation for the last many months, said "anger flares up" in a mass movement like this when the genuine rights of people are ignored.
In today's situation, that anger flared up, he said.
Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP, had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers' agitation.
Swaraj Abhyan leader Yogendra Yadav, who is among the leaders spearheading the agitation against the farm laws, said Sidhu had been disassociated "from our protest right from the beginning".
"When he participated in a protest at Shambu border and seeing their activities, the farmer unions had decided to keep them away from our movement," he said.
The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions that is leading the protest against the three central farm laws, also disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade and alleged that some "antisocial elements" infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.
Sidhu, however, said that Tuesday's incident should not be seen in isolation as they have been holding their protest for the last six to seven months.
And it (today's incident) was a continuation of that, he said.
Sidhu said the protesters did not go to Delhi to hurt anyone or damage public property, nor they had any weapon.
We held a peaceful protest without destroying anything or causing any damage to the public property we exercised our democratic right peacefully, he claimed, adding, If we think one person or a personality could do such a big mobilisation of people, then it will be wrong.
Wielding sticks and clubs and holding the tricolour and union flags, tens of thousands of farmers atop tractors broke barriers, clashed with police and entered the city from various points to lay siege to the Red Fort.
Over 80 police personnel have been injured in the violence.
Senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan has tweeted on his microblogging site twitter as
This is Deep Sidhu with Modi & Shah. He led the mob at Red Fort today & unfurled the Sikh religious flag there pic.twitter.com/dX9bQjAIim
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 26, 2021
Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points, including Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding a complete repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
