Congress workers, led by senior party leaders, on Monday took to the streets across Punjab to burn ‘chitta’ Raavan effigies of Akali leaders including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his deputy son Sukhbir Badal and State Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia as part of the party’s Statewide anti-drugs battle.
The Congress leaders and workers, standing defiant and firm in the face of reports of likely police attempts to thwart their plans, came out fearlessly to set the effigies on fire, with party’s State president Capt Amarinder Singh personally witnessing the burning at Baghapurana.
Other party leaders, including MlAs Rana Gurjit Singh, Kewal Singh Dhillon, laal Singh, led the workers to set the effigies ablaze in their respective Assembly segments.
Capt Amarinder, who was in Moga district for his three-day Kisan Yatra roadshow, launched from Chandigarh on Monday morning, was present on the occasion of the slaying of the “Badal and Majithia Raavans” in Baghapurana.
As the effigies exploded into fireworks before falling to ashes on the ground, the entire area broke out into spontaneous cheers by thousands of people who had gathered there for the event.
Reports of similar burning of effigies of the Badals and other Akali government leaders also poured in from other parts of the state at the state Congress Committee offices throughout the day, the sate Congress’ official statement claimed.
Capt Amarinder, a day before, gave a clarion call to the party workers to blast ‘Chitta Raavans’ in all the assembly segments of the state. In many areas, incidents of burning of effigies were reported on Sunday itself.
On Monday, the campaign reached its peak ahead of Capt Amarinder’s plans to burn similar effigies in ludhiana to coincide with Tuesday’s visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Capt Amarinder has chosen for Tuesday’s Chitta Raavan burning on the same spot where Congress workers were attacked by Akali goons in the presence of the police on Dussehra eve while trying to blast the Chitta effigy.
Scaling the pitch of the party’s anti-drugs war, Capt Amarinder had on Sunday called upon Congress workers to plaster Chitta Raavans with the faces of the Badals and other corrupt members of their team in defiance of the reported diktat of the state government that effigies with faces will not be allowed to be burnt.
“let them (the cops) try and stop us. We will fight them every inch of the way. They can’t stop us from venting our anger at the suffering being meted out to the people by the Badal government,” he had vowed, assuring party workers that he was with them every step of the way.