Rajpura/Fatehgarh Sahib, September 24
Black flags greeted Uma Bharti’s Tiranga Yatra within minutes of its entry into Punjab.
Akali Dal (Amritsar) activists stopped the yatra for around 15 minutes at the octroi post here. They were raising slogan “Uma Bharti Vapas Jao”.
A little further away, the Rajeev Brigade made its point by shouting “Uma Bharti Hai Shararti”. Another 25 km away at Sirhind, Simranjit Singh Mann lay down on the Grand Trunk Road to stop the sadhvi’s cavalcade. Mann’s supporters stoned two vehicles. They also throw eggs at the yatra.
Although Uma claimed she was not cowed down by the opposition to her yatra, she was clearly ruffled. She said Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh was behind the demonstrations.
She said she would now make it a point to campaign and see an end to the Congress rule in the next Assembly elections by campaigning in the state.
She said the Chief Minister should have ordered the arrest of demonstrators. She would request the SAD president, after the formation of an Akali-BJP government in the state, to take action against the DCs and SSPs of both district, she added. The police force had remained mute spectators to the entire ‘drama’, she claimed.
She announced that the people of Madhya Pradesh would now show black flags to Sonia Gandhi whenever the latter visited the state unless she “directed” Capt Amarinder Singh to apologise to her.
Earlier, when the cavalcade of Uma Bharti reached near the Rajpura octroi post, around 150 Amritsar Dal activists stopped traffic on the road while waving black flags. They also shouted anti-Uma slogans.
Akali activists even hit at the car of
former minister Manoranjan Kalia with fists, besides getting into an argument with state BJP president Avinash Rai Khanna. They were removed from the spot after 15 minutes after a mild lathicharge. No one was injured in the lathicharge.
At a roadside public rally at Rajpura, Manoranjan Kalia threaten that BJP workers would rise up all over the state in case the Tiranga Yatra was hit by a single stone.
However, the talk did not help much and the yatra vehicles were stoned by Amritsar Dal activists at Sirhind, 25 km further on the road.
Glasses of two vehicles were broken.
Although the Fatehgarh Sahib police had nabbed around 30 persons, including SGPC member Ravinder Singh Khalsa, before the yatra reached Sirhind, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann was able to lead around 40 supporters to the GT Road. He lay down on the road and the traffic remained blocked for more 30 minutes.
Later, Mr Mann even kicked one of the cavalcade vehicles, while his supporters tried to reach Uma’s bus.
The Fatehgarh Sahib police had a difficult time controlling both Akali and BJP activists as some BJP workers had come down from their vehicles to take on the Akalis. Eggs were thrown at cavalcade vehicles. Some Akali activists threw a metal table, lying in front of a shop, at one of the vehicles.
Mr Mann, while talking to reporters at the spot, claimed the BJP, the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal were responsible for the Operation Bluestar and that Uma Bharti was only coming to further aggravate the situation. He alleged that the manner in which the National Flag was being carried in the yatra was intimidatory and did not give a message of peace.
