M A I N   N E W S

Blue influx leaves city littered
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

From left: Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, former Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, SAD President Parkash Singh Badal, Mr Sukhbir Badal, BJP leader Avinash Khanna and Capt Kanwaljit Singh in a SAD rally at Matka Chowk in Chandigarh on Monday. — Tribune photo by Manoj Mahajan

Chandigarh, October 16
If dharnas and rallies are a weapon to make a political point, they are also a scourge for the common man.

Unprepared for a massive influx of workers of both the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the city was virtually under siege for more than eight hours today.

With blue and kesri turbans dotting the landscape in and around the City Centre in Sector 17, the local police was hopelessly outnumbered in keeping the arteries of the city — the roads — open to traffic.

The Chandigarh Police was at the receiving end the whole day. While the local residents were fuming at the police for chaos on the roads, speakers at the rally blasted the men in khaki for their repeated use of water cannon and lathis on peaceful demonstrators, including unemployed teachers.

The role of the Punjab Police, too, came under attack. Intriguingly, there was no visible coordination between the Chandigarh and the Punjab Police on either traffic or crowd management. The chaos on the roads spilled over to neighbouring areas of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh also.

To the great relief of many in the city, the rally, in spite of its enormous size, ended without any unsavoury incident. The rallyists enjoyed a day out, heard their leaders, shouted slogans in support of what was being said and left for their homes, amazed by choked roundabouts in a planned city.

Though they had come to lodge a protest on a sensitive issue of the growing incidence of suicides among farmers, they did use the opportunity for exploring City Beautiful by visiting various sites of tourist interest.

And at the end of the rally, it was not only the road dividing Sectors 16 and 17 which was littered with hundreds of thousands of paper and plastic trays, cups, glasses and bottles, but the demonstrators also left tell-tale marks in the Rose Garden, the Sector 17 shopping centre, Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden and the Sector 22 shopping area.

The police was a failure in putting in operation any effective plan to manage both the visitors and their vehicles.

Though the organisers had made no secret of their plans of choking the city with an “unprecedented gush of supporters” to “launch their final assault on the Congress regime in Punjab”, the Administration was unable to promise a smooth passage for school, college and university students, office-goers or even the old and sick to their destination.

Those who travelled from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to the city this morning were also a harassed lot as all roads leading to Chandigarh were overflowing with trucks, buses, jeeps and cars carrying SAD and BJP supporters.

“Against a normal time of two hours, it took me more than three hours to reach Chandigarh from Ludhiana,” remarked Mr Rimple Singh of Jagraon. “I do not know how long it will take me to go back to Ludhiana when the protesters also start running home.”

Another person complained that it took him five hours to undertake a 100 km journey from Ludhiana to Chandigarh in the forenoon.

Normal life may have come to a standstill in many parts of this planned city, yet it was a field day for hundreds of others, including vendors, who used the area on the periphery of Matka Chowk to sell groundnuts, channa bhaturas, bananas, fruit juice and other items.

Many of the posh showrooms in Sector 17 had unexpected guests from rural Punjab making quick purchases from shoes to mobile handsets. Then there were those who did not let this opportunity go waste to have a few quick drinks as they found liquor to be much cheaper here.

And many of them, realising the big difference in prices, did buy bottles of Indian made foreign liquor for carrying these back home.

SAD, BJP target PM, Amarinder
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 16
In a show of strength here today, the top leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP focused their political attack on the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who will obviously be the main campaigners of the ruling Congress in Punjab where the Assembly elections are due to be held in four months from now.

Declaring an election war on the Congress, senior Akali leaders and the BJP, including Mr Parkash Singh Badal, his son, Mr Sukhbir Singh, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Mr Balwinder Bhunder, Mr Gurdev Singh Badal, Mr Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Mr Avinash Rai Khanna and Mr Harjit Singh Grewal fired salvos to project Dr Manmohan Singh as anti-Punjab. The theme of all speeches delivered from the Akali platform was to register in the mind of the responsive audience that whenever Congress governments came to power at the Centre and in the state, they discriminated against Punjab.

Attacking the Prime Minister, Akali leaders raised the issue of a denial of a relief package, which had been given to four other states, to debt-ridden farmers of Punjab, refusal to give concessions to promote industry in Punjab on a par with other states, not approving any major industrial project for the state and of stopping work on the Bathinda Oil Refinery.

Targeting Capt Amarinder Singh, the Akali leaders focused on police excesses on women, employees, unemployed youth and Dalits, suicide by farmers, rising prices and corruption. In fact, the SAD leadership had deliberately selected Matka Chowk as the venue of today’s protest rally. Matka Chowk is where almost every day people, including employees, women and unemployed youth are brutalised by the police at the behest of Capt Amarinder Singh. The Punjab Government has reduced this chowk to ‘jhatka’ chowk”, said Mr Sukhbir Singh. “It is a chowk where ETT teachers, aganwari workers, farmers, veterinary pharmacists and unemployed youth from Punjab have been mercilessly beaten for the past four years by the police at the instance of the Punjab Government and the purpose of today’s rally is to protest against such repression”, he added.

A significant political development at today’s rally was that no senior Akali leader forgot to mention the name of Mr Sukhbir Singh while projecting his father, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, as the Chief Minister for another term. In fact, most of the senior Akali leaders, including Mr Dhindsa, Mr Gurdev Singh, Mr Grewal and Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi, gave the credit for organising such a huge protest rally to Mr Sukhbir Singh.

Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, former BJP Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, whose speech drew a big applause, also showered praise on Mr Sukhbir Singh. In a way, the top leadership of the SAD accepted Mr Sukhbir Singh as a big player in the party’s politics. The SAD leadership was happy to see the large turn out of youth at the rally. In the coming Assembly elections in Punjab, the youth will play a major role in deciding the fortunes of various leaders and parties. Mr Sukhbir Singh, announced the setting up of a youth development board when his party came to power.

Leading the charge against the Prime Minister, the SAD chief, Mr Badal , said Punjab had been deceived by the Union Government. “Punjab, which gave so much to the country and guarded its borders, is now sliding down on the agricultural and industrial fronts because of the discriminatory attitude adopted by the Union Government”, he said. “ People have turned up here in big numbers because they have the feeling that they are being denied their due by Dr Manmohan Singh, who gave nothing to Punjab during his last visit to the state”, he added.

“The Punjab Government gave no jobs, denied health services and ruined educational institutions for four and a half years and now when the elections are round the corner it is talking of mega projects and starting a recruitment drive”, said Mr Badal. “ The projects given by the Vajpayee government to Punjab are being claimed by the present government in the state and the Centre”, he said. He ridiculed the proposed road show by Capt Amarinder Singh, saying that people would be brought to the show by using police force.

Mr Dhumal said it was time to evaluate what had happened to the common man of this country, which had been governed by the Congress for about 50 years. Speaking in chaste Punjabi, he gave a new slogan,” Sath rupiae kilo dal, roti khaiea keehde nal” (pulses are selling at Rs 60 per kg, with what should we eat loaves). Almost all MLAs, MPs and other senior leaders were present at the rally.