JASWANT SINGH GANDAM / RAMAN NEHRA
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: Continuing their protest even on Independence Day, a large number of members of the Ravidasia community made a human chain alongside Sugar Mill chowk on National Highway 1 to protest the demolition of the 500-year-old Guru Ravidas temple at Tughlaqabad in New Delhi August 10 on orders of the apex court.
They sported black flags and black banners with word ‘Ros’ (protest) written on them in black, bold letters.
Several of them tied black clothes on their heads and wore black badges as a mark of protest.
They stayed away from Independence Day celebrations, saying it had come for them as black day as the abode of their Guru was dismantled.
They demanded re-allotment of land for the reconstruction of the temple at the same place.
The protesters first assembled at PWD Rest House and then took out a protest march through NH1 to converge at Sugar mill chowk.
They raised angry slogans against the Narendra Modi government at the Center.
They made a long human chain extending from Hoshiarpur crossing to main bus stand along NH1.
Jarnail Nangal, president state SC Wing of Lok Insaaf Party, led them.
Nangal, who was one of the members in the delegation that met Union Housing and Urban Development Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Delhi on August 13, said that they had outrightly rejected Puri’s suggestion of providing an alternative site for the relocation of the temple.
Addressing protesters, Nangal alleged that only a handful of political families and corporate houses enjoyed independence while the majority of Indians, especially Dalits, were still slaves in the system.
“We are subject to ‘zor-jabar’ (tyranny) of the Indian system and the demolition of Guru Ravidas temple is a glaring example of it,” he said.
Reports of similar protests poured in from Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar.
Meanwhile, Guru Ravidas Sadhu Sampardai Society chairman Sant Mohinderpal Pandwa declared at his dera that Sant Samaj has rejected Puri’s suggestion of alternative site.
“We demand re-allotment of land and reconstruction of temple at the same site where it was razed,” he demanded.
“It is a historic site hallowed by the visit of Guru Ravidas around 1509, a centre of ‘astha’ (faith) and ‘shraddha’ (devotion) for lakhs of devotees of Guru Ravidas inside and outside the country. Nothing short of re-allocation of same sacred land for the reconstruction of the temple is acceptable to us.”
Sant Mohinderpal Pandwa had spearheaded the August 10 traffic blockade of NH1 here and jams of other roads as well as the August 13 Punjab shutdown and blockade.
He was among a group of the community’s 25 Sants who had met Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh in the premises of PAP Jalandhar August 14 to discuss the temple issue.
On their suggestion, Amrinder Singh had agreed to lead a Ravidasia community delegation to the Prime Minister to seek the latter’s intervention for resolving the temple issue.
Meanwhile, Phagwara SP Mandeep Singh said that the 73rd subdivisional level Independence Day celebrations were held with zeal and fervour in Government Senior Secondary School’s stadium.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Babita Kler hoisted the national flag and took the salute from the march past.
Former Punjab minister Joginder Singh Mann and District Congress Committee president Balbir Rani Sodhi also attended the event.
