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Students herded to Sukhbir’s
rally by force
WSN Network
 PATIALA :Of the
many dubious contributions from the House of Badals to the
Punjab
polity,
one is called the Students Organisation of India, or SOI. Led by a
Sukhbir loyalist with an interesting surname of Raju-Khanna, SOI has
emerged as the forum that has marginalised All India Sikh Students
Federation and the Youth Akali Dal, both. SOI leaders have
unhindered and complete access to Sukhbir Badal, normaly speak the
language for which one needs very little diction and lots of lathis
and swords, and often make offers that you cannot refuse.
Last
Wednesday, SOI put up its show of strength in Patiala, and no doubt
all efforts were made to impress party president Sukhbir Singh
Badal. In order to stuff the grounds to full capacity, SOI activists
rounded up hundreds of students from schools and colleges and
brought them to the grounds where they were kept captive for hours
to listen to the gems dropped from Akali Dal president’s lips.
Students were pushed, threatened, assaulted and taken at gunpoint
when they tried to leave the venue halfway during the long address
of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir.
Many students,
reported the Hindustan Times, were injured during the chaos when
they tried to scale a 12-foot high wrought iron fence. The SOI of
course claimed that was the “biggest-ever gathering of young voters
in the state: but cared to explain why it even tried to hold the
gathering at a time when students were in the thick of examination
preparations.
The students said they were herded in trucks to the
rally. The newspaper report quoted many students by same who said
they were brought on the promise of good food. Once at the rally,
they found that there was no arrangement even for water. “The SOI
leaders who had brought the students from various areas employed
“all means” to keep them in, while the police allowed them to do as
they pleased. Some of the SOI supporters even brandished weapons at
the fleeing students. Students from Classes IX and X at village
Nidampur near Patiala, who were in their uniform, said the student
leaders had pushed them back when they had tried to leave,” the
Hindustan Times reported
25 February 2009
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