Shoe hurled at Punjab CM during poll rally; one held

Lambi: A shoe was hurled at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday by a relative of a radical Sikh leader during an election campaign at Ratta Khera village here.

40-year-old Gurbachan Singh allegedly hurled the shoe towards Badal, which first hit security personnel and then touched 89-year-old Badal's turban, police said.

"A man identified as Gurbachan Singh, a relative of a Sikh radical leader, hurled shoe at Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal," Muktsar SSP Dhruman H Nimbale said today.

A security official guarding Badal tried to stop the shoe with his hand. "After hitting the security personnel, the shoe then touched the turban of CM," Nimbale said, adding that there was no injury to Badal in this incident.

The SSP said the incident occurred at village Ratta Khera where Badal was busy in a public meeting during his election campaign.

"CM was just getting up after completing his address when a shoe was hurled by Gurbachan towards CM," he said.

Gurbachan is brother of radical Sikh leader Amrik Singh Ajnala. "He appeared to be upset over the sacrilege incidents which took place in Punjab," the SSP said, adding that he had been nabbed. A case will be registered against the accused, he said.

Badal said the incident proves beyond doubt that "his opponents have lost the game" and "want to scuttle" prospects of peaceful, free and fair poll. "Here is clear proof that our opponents have conceded defeat in these elections and were now resorting to such disruptive tactics," the five time CM said.

However, Badal said "as father figure in the state," he would continue to walk the path of patience, peace and communal harmony for development and prosperity of Punjab.

"Behind such incidents are people who want to set Punjab on flames again and push the youth back into the jaws of bloodshed and confrontation, from which people of the state have emerged after unspeakable sacrifices," the 89-year-old Akali patriarch said.

These desperate elements have the backing of our political rivals, who are increasingly getting desperate, seeing all their tall-talks about the elections turning out to be mere daydream and that Punjab is set to vote SAD-BJP back for a third tenure, he claimed.

"The incident was just one more attempt by our opponents to deflect attention of the people of Punjab from the agenda of peace and massive all-round development being pursued vigorously by the SAD-BJP government over the past ten years," the Chief Minister said.

The person who indulged in today's incident is not even from Lambi (Badal's home constituency), and is closely related to our political opponents, who have no faith in the peaceful, democratic path, he alleged.

"Our opponents are scared to talk about peace and development as everyone can see the performance of the SAD-BJP government on peace, communal harmony and development fronts," he said, adding as a father figure, he will never be provoked or desisted from his path of service to the people.

"These people emerge like seasonal birds during elections but I have stayed amid people everyday. Nothing will stop me from following this path shown by the great Gurus," he said.

"Our faith and our commitment to serve the people is too strong to be shaken by such acts," Badal said, adding he had faced bigger challenges from elements backed by his rivals.

"I have always had faith in my people. And this will continue as long as I am alive," he said.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh, a bitter rival of the Badals, termed the incidents of a shoe being hurled at Parkash Singh Badal today and earlier, stone-pelting on Sukhbir Badal's convoy as "regrettable".

However, he claimed that it was the "pent-up anger of the people coming to the fore". "I urge the people to use the ballot to avenge themselves against the Badals for the atrocities unleashed on them over the past 10 years," Singh said.

A few days back, a group of people threw stones at the cavalcade of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at Kandhwala Hazir Khan village in his constituency, Jalalabad in Fazilka district, leaving four Akali supporters injured.