Ahead of PM's visit, Punjab BJP protests delay in unveiling Bhagat Singh statue at Chandigarh Airport

A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city, the Punjab unit of the BJP staged a protest over the delayed unveiling of the ‘Shaheed-e-Azam’ Bhagat Singh statue at the Chandigarh Airport. Led by the BJP state vice-president, Subhash Sharma and the district president, Sanjiv Vashisht, the protesters marched from Airport Chowk, accusing the state government of disrespecting the martyr. They said the people of the state Punjab would not tolerate this delay and vowed to unveil the statue themselves.

The protest was met with a heavy police presence, including tipper trucks parked along the route to block the march. The police quickly rounded up the protesters and detained them in a bus.

Over the last six months the unveiling of the statue has been postponed multiple times. Initially delayed due to the Election Commission's code of conduct, it was later held up by the state government's focus on the bypolls. The ceremony, originally scheduled for October 18, was initially rescheduled to November 28, then to December 3 and has now been set for December 4, following an announcement by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.