Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s female-centred “Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon (I’m a girl and can fight)” campaign in Uttar Pradesh confronted a challenge in a state ruled by her own party on Wednesday. At Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s rally in Sangrur, the police were seen choking, hauling, and stacking men and women into jeeps. The crackdown was on qualified teachers, who, incapable to secure jobs, had assembled at the spot to demonstrate.
Upsetting visuals from the spot showed the police attempting to keep down shoutinh teachers. As they were shouting slogans condemning the Chief Minister and the Punjab government, the police were seen choking the protesters, stuffing cloth in their mouths to silent them.
An official was even seen dragging a women by her clothes as she wriggled shouting slogans. She was then spotted inside a police vehicle with many other protesters. And she kept on shouting the slogans as a police officer attempted to pull her back inside and shut the window. The vehicle then, at that point, drove away.
Men protesting at the rally were heckled by supporters of the Chief Minister. In some cases, there were physical assaults.
Those protesting at the rally were being interrupted and abused by the CM’s supporters. Some were even physically beaten as well.
A man even tried to strangle hold a protestor to keep his mouth shut. Others helped the police gag the protesters and throw them into a police vehicle.
In a video, three cops were seen attempting to pin a man down to the surface and kneeling on his chest. At the end of the video, Chief Minister was seen getting ready for his address at the stage.
The BJP government criticized heavily The actions against the teachers. Even social media was flooded with heavy criticism, some of them also targeted Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s female centric approach.
It was not the first time that Punjab Police shielded Chief Minister from protesters and it came under criticism.
Recently, the Punjab Police had asked its officials to play hymns and religious prayers on loudspeakers during a function attended by the Chief Minister to drown the voice of the protesters.
AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is looking for a gain in upcoming Punjab assembly elections had met with the unemployed teachers in Punjab Mohali last month. He promised them of sweeping reforms with eight poll promises.
