Even after cremation, politics is alive

Tuesday, 05/05/2015

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

MOGA: Even as the victim of the Moga bus horror was cremated after dark on Sunday, the politics over the issue is not dead.

Former Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh and other Congress leaders meeting the mother of the Moga molestation victim in the civil hospital on Monday.

Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, on Monday demanded President’s Rule in Punjab to control the “deteriorating law and order”. He reached Civil Hospital here with more than 20 legislators and state party leaders, and accused chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of forcing the affected family to cremate the victim at night to save the government from further embarrassment.

“More than 84 years ago, on March 23, 1931, the British had cremated Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev secretly under the cover of darkness (after executing them),” said Amarinder, adding: “Like the Badals, the-then regime in Punjab also feared public outrage in case of cremation in the day.”

“Punjab is a fit case for President’s Rule, since anarchy prevails, while the economy has gone bankrupt long ago,” he told reporters after meeting the parents of victim Arshdeep Kaur, the girl whom molesters had thrown off an Orbit bus owned by the ruling Badal family. Amarinder said the spurt in serious crime in Punjab had made people unsafe.

He also met Arshdeep’s mother, Shinder Kaur, and gave away `2 lakh to the family. The leader asked the BJP: “You have told your party president, Amit Shah, that you feel humiliated by the Akalis. What stops from quitting the government and joining us in the fight against the Badal family?”

YOGENDRA YADAV MEETS GIRL’S MOTHER
Ousted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogendra Yadav also met the victim’s mother and demanded a high-level inquiry into the assets of the Badal family. “The Badals have destroyed Punjab by promoting the mafia businesses in sand, cable, land, and transport. How their fleet grew from six buses in 1996 to 400 merits investigation,” he said.

“The molestation and murder in Moga happened because of the patronage of the Badals to rogue elements, and so bus owner (deputy chief minister) Sukhbir Singh Badal deserves to be booked and Orbit and other Badal-family-owned buses should be banned,” said Yadav. “Cremation is not the end of the fight to end the rule of terror in Punjab,” he added.

LAWYERS DECLINE TO REPRESENT ACCUSED
The district bar association has decided not to represent any of the accused in the court. Its president, Ramesh Grover, said after meeting the victim’s mother that local lawyers were ready to offer free legal aid to the affected family.