BJP parliamentarian Varun Gandhi on Sunday castigated the efforts to communalise the Lakhimpur Kheri carnage, sending a message to his party and its government.

“An attempt to turn #LakhimpurKheri into a Hindu vs Sikh battle is being made. Not only is this an immortal & false narrative, it is dangerous to create these fault-lines & reopen wounds that have taken a generation to heal,” Varun tweeted.

“We must not put petty political gains above national unity.”

Some BJP politicians, including Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni, have sought to portray the protesting farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri as Khalistani extremists.

Many of the protesting farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri were Sikhs. Of the five men mowed down last Sunday, the four farmers were Sikhs and the journalist was a Hindu.

The Terai region of which Lakhimpur Kheri is a part has a large Sikh population, with settlers from the community arriving after the Partition.

Varun was recently dropped from the BJP national executive committee along with mother Maneka Gandhi, also a party MP. The decision followed his relentless questioning on the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre and his persistent demands for strong action.

On Sunday, Varun said the struggle for justice in Lakhimpur Kheri was about the “cruel massacre of poor farmers in the face of an arrogant local power elite”, and insisted that the issue had no religious connotations.

“To use the word ‘Khalistani’ liberally to describe the protesting farmers is not only an insult to the generations of these proud sons of the Tarai who have fought and shed blood on our borders, it is also extremely dangerous for our national unity if this provokes the wrong kind of reaction,” he said.

Ashis Mishra, son of Teni, has been arrested in connection with the October 3 massacre. He is alleged to have been in a Thar jeep belonging to his father that had, along with some other cars in a convoy it was leading, ploughed through a crowd of protesting farmers, killing five people.

Varun has over the past few months annoyed the BJP leadership by publicly airing sympathy for the farmers who have been protesting against three farm laws since last November.

Other BJP leaders and the party’s ecosystem have repeatedly tried to discredit the farmers and paint them as terrorists or Naxalites.