Lakhminder Singh Jakhar resigned as Punjab’s deputy inspector general, prisons, on December 12 in support of the farmers protesting against the farm laws brought by the Narendra Modi government.

Speaking with Nidhi Suresh of Newslaundry, Jakhar talks about his resignation and answers the questions being raised about it.

What triggered him to resign? “Around 10 days ago, a farmer who was sitting at the protest and his son died in J&K while serving as a soldier,” he says. “So, it really hurts when a father is sitting at the protest and his son is dying defending the nation, and yet people are linking the farmer protests to terrorism, calling it antisocial and Naxalite, and whatnot.”

On the farm laws, Jakhar argues that if a farmer gets the right price for his produce at his doorstep, that is, the local mandi, he would not prefer going to another part of the country to sell it. “Nobody stopped us earlier from taking our crops anywhere, but economically it wasn’t viable for the farmer. And even now it will not be,” he adds.

Clearing the air about the timing of his resignation, he claims he did not quit to escape allegations of corruption levelled against him earlier this year. “People are doing it for their vested interests. Nobody can escape anything while in service or otherwise, as a citizen of India. Where will you go? There’s no hiding,” he says.

Jakhar also talks about his plan to go to the Delhi border to support the farmers protesting there, and whether he will join politics.

Watch.

Text by Diksha Munjal.