Shoe hurled at Badal in Lambi, CM unfazed

Varinder Singh & 

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 11

A shoe was hurled at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in his home constituency of Lambi today. Unfazed, the CM sought to downplay the incident, claiming that it only proved his opponents had “lost the game” and that they wanted to deflect the people’s attention from the agenda of “peace and all-round development” that the SAD-BJP government had pursued vigorously over the past 10 years.

The attacker, Gurbachan Singh of Jhurd Khera village near Abohar, was detained. He is the brother of Bhai Amrik Singh Ajnala, the “parallel jathedar” of Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib. An agriculturist, Gurbachan is a registered voter at Rattakhera Chhota village, one of the two waterlogged villages that the CM adopted for development. A case under Sections 352, 353 and 186 of the IPC  has been registered. 

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“Gurbachan Singh, who arrived on a motorcycle, threw a shoe at the CM,” said Dhruman H Nimbale, SSP, Muktsar. Speaking over the phone, Bhai Amrik Singh said: “Gurbachan is my younger brother. I can’t say whether he took the right step or not. But I do know the Sikh community is very angry over the government’s failure to check incidents of desecration.”

Warning that certain elements wanted “to push Punjab’s youth back into the jaws of bloodshed”, a reference to the dark days of militancy, Badal termed the incident “an attempt to scuttle free, fair and peaceful elections”.  

“These people, like seasonal birds, appear only during elections. But I have stayed amid people every day of my life. Nothing will stop me from following the path shown by the Gurus, saints and seers. Our commitment to serve the people is too strong to be shaken by such acts,” said an emotional Badal.

"Nothing will stop me from following the path shown by the great Gurus. Our commitment to serve the people is too strong to be shaken by such acts." —Parkash Singh Badal, CM

No matter what the provocation, hurling a shoe at someone is only condemnable. There can’t be any justification for such incidents. — Manish Tewari, Congress Leader