‘Black day’: Protesters burn effigies of PM Modi, Amit Shah, Tomar in tricity

Amarjot Kaur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 26

Six months on, the rage against the Central Government’s agro-market laws continues to smoulder. Pro-farmer groups, farmers and civil society members set afire effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet members, including Home Minister Amit Shah and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to mark ‘black day’ in the tricity today.

On a call of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a total of 19 such effigies were burnt in Chandigarh alone. In Mohali, hundreds toured the city with hoisting black flags on tractors, cars, tractor-trailers, scooters, cycles and motorbikes from the Sohana gurdwara to Bestech Square Mall.

Public backs cause

While the Mohali police struggled to manage the traffic, the general public remained supportive and sympathetic towards protesters. “They till the soil in this heat. They work hard. They don’t want these laws; why force them to accept? I am with farmers. I will wait here till the traffic clears. No problem,” said Simranjit Kaur, who was stuck at the traffic lights near Amb Sahib.

Coming all the way from the rally in Mohali, Satnam Singh Tanda describes his experience as ‘motivating’. Showing a video, he says, “Modi’s effigy was hung atop a crane, and it was in front of the Sohana gurdwara that we hung a garland of shoes around the effigy. Then we toured across Mohali to reach the mall where the effigy was finally set ablaze.”

While the Mohali police struggled to manage the traffic, general public remained supportive and sympathetic towards protesters. “They till the soil in this heat. They work hard. They don’t want these laws; why force them to accept? I am with farmers. I will wait here till the traffic clears. No problem,” said Simranjit Kaur, a resident of Mohali, who was stuck at the traffic lights near Amb Sahib.

The situation at the Sector 34/33 light point in the city was, however, different. The Sector 33 road, on which the BJP office is located, was closed. The office was fortified with cops deployed on both sides of the road. Some 300 protesters raised slogans against Modi-Shah at the light point.

“They are using heavy police force to monitor a peaceful protest! It only shows they are scared,” said Parteek Maan of Nojawan Kisan Ekta.

Another protester, Aman, said, “If only the government had shown such preparedness in guarding its people against Covid, things would have been better. The BJP just wants to protect itself, nobody else.”

Protesters burnt an effigy of Modi at the Sector 34 traffic light point at 3 pm, barely 200 metres from the BJP office. These protesters were joined by door-to-door garbage collectors as well as members of Pendu Sangharsh Commitee and Samuh Gurdwara Sangathan, Chandigarh.

The effigies were burnt at many other places in the city, including Matka Chowk, the PGI chowk and Sector 39, Sector 19/27 and other traffic light points, where people have been protesting for more than five months. Protests were held at Mani Majra and Panjab University. At the university, members of the Students for Society and the Punjab Students’ Union (Lalkaar) held the protest. Most people were dressed in black and held black flags along with farmer-union flags.