Akali Dal workers vandalise Rajiv statue in Punjab

Ludhiana/Chandigarh: Miscreants, allegedly belonging to Youth Akali Dal, on Tuesday sprayed red and black paint on the statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the Salem Tabri area of Ludhiana in full public glare, seemingly to give vent to their anger over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.

Youth Akali Dal leader Gurdip Singh Gosha was arrested while another, Meet Pal Singh Dugri, will be nabbed soon, police claimed, adding six to seven people were with the two accused when they vandalised the statue of the former Prime Minister.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh strongly condemned the incident and asked Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to stop indulging in such petty politics. Lashing out at the Akalis, the chief minister said that in their desperation to win public support, “which the party had completely lost due to its criminal acts of omission and commission in the 10 years of SAD-BJP rule, the Badals and their supporters were stooping to abominable levels.”

A video purportedly showing the entire episode has also gone viral on social media, triggering strong protests by Congress supporters at various places in the state. The protesters threw black paint on posters of Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal. The SAD has stepped up attack on the Gandhi family after the recent conviction of Sajjan Kumar by the Delhi high court. On Saturday, the party had demanded that a special sitting of the Punjab Assembly be convened to pass a resolution for revocation of Rajiv’s Bharat Ratna.