YAD holds anti-Cong protests across state

Chandigarh: Youth Akali Dal (YAD) workers and members of various Sikh organisations today staged protests at all district headquarters in the state by burning the effigies of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. They also demanded an immediate dismissal of the Congress-led UPA Government. A press release from the party office here said “since Rahul Gandhi had confessed that Congress leaders were behind the pogrom aimed against the Sikh community, he was duty-bound to name the leaders involved in the genocide.”

The demonstrators demanded that the guilty be expelled from the Congress.

The YAD leaders also asked Pradesh Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa to clarify his stand on the confessional statement of Rahul Gandhi and tell the people of the state whether he would side with the murderers or demand exemplary punishment for them.

In Amritsar, scores of Akali workers held a demonstration outside the District Court Complex here. Addressing the agitators, former MP Rajmohinder Singh Majitha, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Inderbir Singh Bolaria and Amarpal Singh Boni, MLAs Baljit Singh Jalal Usma and Manjit Singh Manna along with other leaders said that Rahul had let the cat out of the bag.

The leaders said that during the 1984 genocide, the police did not even fire a single bullet to stop the carnage. Also the fact that the guilty had not been arrested for the last 30 years proved that all this had been a part of the Congress strategy, they charged.

In Patiala, YAD workers and members of various Sikh organisations burnt the effigy of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. They demanded an immediate dismissal of the Congress-led UPA Government.

Among others present at the site were Cabinet Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra, Ghanour MLA Harpreet Kaur Mukhmailpur and YAD general secretary Harpal Juneja.

In Nawanshahr, YAD activists, led by district president Budh Singh Balakipur and district YAD co-ordinator Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal, protested against the Congress. In Sangrur, a large number of YAD workers, led by district president Satgur Singh Namol, held a rally outside the district administrative complex here.

In Moga, senior YAD vice president Barjinder Singh Brar led hundreds of workers in the protest against the Congress.

In Ropar, YAD workers’ protest was led by local MLA Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema. They burnt Rahul’s effigy near the mini secretariat.

Their demands:

YAD leaders demanded that those involved in the 1984 genocide be named and expelled from the Congress
They also demanded that PPCC chief Partap Bajwa take a stand on the issue

Fissures to the fore

Fatehgarh Sahib: Two warring factions of Youth Akali Dal (YAD) held separate dharnas and burnt the effigy of Rahul Gandhi separately here today. One group was led by Harinder Pal Singh Chandumajra, national secretary of YAD, and the other by Ajay Libra, YAD district president. The Chandumajra group protested outside the Deputy Commissioner’s Office while Libra held the protest at his petrol pump on GT Road in Sirhind. The police had made elaborate security arrangements as the two groups had clashed at a dharna a few days ago.

Source: The Tribune