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Cong bandh today to be half-day affair
THE STATEWIDE bandh called by Congress party tomorrow to protest against the alleged involvement of ABVP activists in the death of Madhav College (Ujjain) professor Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal will only be till 2 pm in Indore. The bandh is being curtailed in the City because of Anant Chaturdashi on Wednesday, which is celebrated on a grand scale.
THE STATEWIDE bandh called by Congress party tomorrow to protest against the alleged involvement of ABVP activists in the death of Madhav College (Ujjain) professor Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal will only be till 2 pm in Indore. The bandh is being curtailed in the City because of Anant Chaturdashi on Wednesday, which is celebrated on a grand scale.
The Congress, under its newly elected president Pramod Tandon, is making all-out efforts to ensure that the bandh is a success. Talking to newspersons here today, Tandon, MP Congress Committee spokesperson K K Mishra and other leaders said that educational institutions, main markets, transport and offices would remain closed. They said they had already talked to various business organisations, and school and college managements and appealed to them to make the bandh a success. Tandon said no force would be used.
“We will ask those who keep establishments open to shut them down with folded hands, and if they refuse we will go away.” He, however, added that most of the managements of educational institutions and markets have backed the Congress call and would voluntarily keep their establishments closed.
Tandon and Mishra said that they are demanding the suspension of the State Government and booking of the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan under Section 120B for conspiring to cover up the incident by his leading statements in the media in which he said the Professor’s death was an accident. This statement was issued before the CID had even started its investigations into the case. They alleged that a cover-up operation was being done by the Ujjain SP and additional SP at the behest of the political leadership.
The Congress leaders pointed out that Ujjain additional SP Vinit Khanna was the brother-in-law of BJP organisation general secretary Kaptan Singh Solanki, and his credibility was therefore suspect. They also appealed to the Governor to initiate his own probe into the report submitted to him by the State Government regarding the Ujjain incident.
Denying that NSUI activists were in any way involved in the death of Prof Sabharwal, the Congress leaders said that at the time Prof Sabharwal had suffered his stroke and died (at around 2.25 pm) due to injuries sustained during beating, the NSUI activists had already been arrested under Section 151 as part of their ‘jail bharo’ stir.
Move to fete CM ridiculed
TAKING POTSHOTS at the decision of the local BJP party members to facilitate the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on September 9 after the State Government received award by news magazine India Today for being a developing state, the Congress leaders said that this was just an effort by a coterie within the BJP to exhibit their closeness to the Chief Minister and thereby intimidate the administration. The Congressmen pointed out that if it really were a public facilitation as it was touted to be, the Mayor would have been a part of the proposed function.
