Punjab protests peacefully

It was all quiet on the road to Sirhind this afternoon. The picturesque stretch was silent like the rest of Punjab, observing a bandh in protest against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief as dictated by an edict from the Akal Takht.

It was all quiet on the road to Sirhind this afternoon. The picturesque stretch was silent like the rest of Punjab, observing a bandh in protest against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief as dictated by an edict from the Akal Takht.

Be it Bathinda, the district where the Dera wields maximum clout, or Amritsar, from where the call for today8217;s bandh came, the scene was the same. Heavy security, thin traffic, closed shops, and at some places, groups of youths, but minus their swords.

Interestingly, it was the same sight at Sirsa as well, where the Dera is headquartered. While the town shut down, a group of religious leaders, including Swami Agnivesh, met the Dera chief to persuade him to apologise to end the stand-off between the sect and the Sikhs. Though deliberations were kept secret, the Dera chief was said to have softened his stand.

In another development, the Dera Sacha Sauda appealed to President APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to mediate and end the impasse. Appealing through the media, the Dera8217;s chief spokesperson Aditya Insaan also urged the Punjab Government to observe 8220;Raj dharma8221; in the wake of the bandh call. He added that the decision to close or not to close the deras should rest with the Punjab Government and not the Sikh priests.

Meanwhile, unlike Sirsa, it was work as usual at Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. The day saw seven arrests, all in Bathinda.

There were some towns where Sikh protesters did try to take out a march but the police managed to disperse them. In Jalandhar, some even took out a nagar kirtan, while others partook a langar on the rail tracks, but without disrupting either peace or trains.

There was some tension in Sultanpur Lodhi when two schools decided to remain open even though the district administration had ordered the closure of all educational institutions but the police stepped in to drive away protesters and close the schools.

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There was resentment too8212;industrialists in Ludhiana said a day8217;s shutdown would cost the state a whopping Rs 200 crore8212;but no one made much noise about it. Memories of the 8220;dark decade8221; are still fresh in the minds of people here. At Majat village, where terrorists had then shot dead and set on fire more than two dozen labourers working on the banks of the controversial Satluj Yamuna Link canal, farmer Kulwant Singh was emphatic in his condemnation of the government. 8220;An FIR has been registered, I don8217;t see why there should be any problem in arresting the accused. It is alright for the Chief Minister to say that the law will take its own course, but when?8221; he asked.

The day ended with Right wing bodies like Damdami Taksal thanking all communities for making the bandh a success.