India won't tolerate insult to Tricolour at Red Fort, says Prakash Javadekar

New Delhi, Jan 28: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday accused the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi of provoking the farmers to create ruckus in the national capital on the Republic Day.

A day after violence broke out in the Capital after a section of protesting farmers marched to the Red Fort, Javadekar said,''Rahul Gandhi wasn't only supporting protest but also instigating. It was the same during CAA, Congress holds rallies, they instigate people to take to streets & agitation begins next day. It happened during this agitation too. They instigated farmers.''

''The manner in which there was violence in Delhi yesterday, the more it is condemned, the less it is. Action should be against all of those who instigated others. India won't tolerate the manner in which the Tricolour was insulted at the Red Fort," Javadekar said, citing the incident where the protesting farmers who managed to get inside the Red Fort hoisted a Sikh religious flag.

''Congress constantly tried to instigate farmers' agitation. When some farmer leaders had said on 26th that it's final match, then Punjab govt should have monitored the tractors leaving from the state & made preventive arrests of habitual criminals,'' he added.

Javadekar also blamed Congress for wanting to create a "situation of unrest" in the country and said,''Congress is desperate, they are losing elections. Communists are in the same condition, so they are looking for new friendships in Bengal. They want to stoke disturbance in the country anyhow.''

The Congress, however, pinned the blame for the violence on the BJP.

Addressing the media, party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said it was a conspiracy to malign farmers and discredit them. "The facts (that) have unfolded over the last 24 hours, a concerted conspiracy, aided and abetted by the Modi Government took place to malign the entire farmers' movement.