JASWANT SINGH GANDAM / RAMAN NEHRA
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) president and MLA from Ludhiana Simarjit Singh Bains has called for convening of an emergency session of the Punjab Assembly in order to discuss the serious situation prevailing in state in the wake of the demolition of the historic Ravidas temple at Tughlakabad in Delhi August 10 on the orders of the Supreme Court and to adopt a resolution on this. Addressing Dalit protesters and the media here, Bains said that it was a matter of shame for Captain Amarinder Singh government of the state to not convene such a session even about a fortnight after the demolition of the 500-year-old temple which had hurt religious sentiments of followers of Guru Ravidas, especially the Scheduled Caste (SC) community and Sikhs.
“An emergency session should be convened forthwith to adopt an all-party unanimous resolution for condemning the demolition and convey to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the deep anguish and anger it had caused to the followers of Ravidas, and demanding its reconstruction after re-allotment of the same piece of land,” Bains said.
He asked local MP and Union Minister Som Parkash to either prevail upon Modi government for rebuilding the temple within a time-bound period or quit as minister if he was not heard. He also called upon members of the SC community to protest outside residences of all SC MLAs and MPs over the issue. Earlier, a large number of dalits, mostly from LIP, joined by Sikhs and Muslims, took out a protest march against the demolition as well as lathicharge and lobbing of teargas shells on peaceful protesters in New Delhi August 21.
Led jointly by Bains and the party’s SC wing state president Jarnail Nangal, protesters covered over six-km distance on foot from village Chak Hakeem Ravidas temple, braving blazing heat, to reach Som Parkash’s residence. They had a scuffle with police which foiled their bid to break a barricade outside the minister’s residence. A heavy police force, led by Phagwara SP Mandeep Singh and SP (Narcotics) Manpreet Singh Dhillon, stopped protesters 200 meters away from the minister’s residence.
The protesters, including Bains, staged a dharna on the road near the barricade, insisting that either they be allowed to go to the minister’s residence or the minister be called to the site of the protest,They dispersed after an hour-long dharna only when they were informed that the minister had left for Delhi due to the demise of former Union Minister Arun Jaitley
Phagwara SDM Jai Inder Singh assured protesters that he will convey their feelings to the authorities concerned.
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