Date:24/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/24/stories/2008092457880500.htm

Other States - Punjab

Rahul promises justice for victimised party men

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday promised justice for all those who lost their kin and suffered repression unleashed allegedly at the instance of the present Akali-BJP Government in Punjab.

Mr. Gandhi gave this assurance after meeting members of 11 families who had been killed in violence during and after elections to village panchayats conducted in May this year. These families had called on him in Bathinda where he stayed overnight after completing the first leg of his three-day tour of Punjab aimed at galvanising the party before the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

While the relatives of the victims narrated their woes, the general secretary of the Punjab unit of the Congress, Raninder Singh, who is the son of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, handed over a file containing details of various incidents and “false cases” registered against party workers since the present Government assumed office one and a half years ago.

“I will get some action initiated after returning to Delhi,” Mr. Gandhi reportedly said after a patient hearing.

Before he resumed his “road show”, which is part of his “Discover India” programme, Mr. Gandhi was presented a red turban, which he sported for quite some time. People from the Malwa heartland of Punjab turned out in large numbers to cheer him. From Bathinda, Mr. Gandhi proceeded to Faridkot to visit the jail where his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was incarcerated in 1923 for participating in the famous “Jaito da Morcha” launched by Akali volunteers under the aegis of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

After bowing in reverence before the cell of the jail, which has since been converted into a police station, Mr. Gandhi saw copies of the complaints registered against Pandit Nehru. Subsequently he proceeded to the Hussianiwala check-post along the Indo-Pak border to pay tributes at the samadhi of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

Meanwhile, reports said that while interacting with a group of Punjabi University students in Patiala on Monday evening Mr. Gandhi said the question of his becoming Prime Minister in future was “open and not closed yet”.

Responding to a question, he quipped, “I will get married soon.”