New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday “India was saddened by insult to Tri -colour on Republic Day”. Modi in his first radio address in Mann ki Baat of 2021 today referred to the events at the Red Fort during the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day.

The iconic Red- fort witnessed violence on Republic Day, when groups of farmers protesting against the farm laws over-ran the fort and hoisted a Sikh religious flag on an empty mast just below the national flag on the ramparts. The police had used batons to push them out. The fort, parts of which had suffered damages, has been shut till January 31 by the Archaeological Survey of India. Responding to opposition demands for a special probe into the incidents at the Red Fort, Modi had earlier said that the “law will take its own course”.

The police had issued notices to farmer leaders on Thursday over the Republic Day violence; give them three days to respond. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, under whose banner around 40 farmer unions gathered, has said it will not be intimidated by the notices.