2017 state polls on mind, SAD invokes Emergency in posters

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 26

A day after the Punjab BJP observed Black Day in the state to mark the Emergency and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi also evoking the Emergency in his “Mann ki Baat” with the people of India today, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), too, has decided to cash in on the issue with a poster campaign.

With big hoardings with the words Emergency – 1975-77 (in Punjabi) and pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal dotting various places in the city, the SAD has made pointed digs at the Congress through posters evoking the Emergency.

While at various levels the SAD’s campaign has already witnessed a more pointed stance against the Congress, compared to the Aam Aadmi Party in the past few days, the Black Day (Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975) has been encashed by the Shorimani Akali Dal as an opportunity to take on the Opposition in the state ahead of the 2017 elections.

However, the party’s fresh posters – unlike the previous political “Raj Nahi Sewa” versions of his posters which usually depict the CM with folded hands (this one has him with a raised index finger) and often beasr his and the Deputy CM’s pictures or other political aides as well. This one is marked by a difference, getting straight to the point and eulogising the CM.

The posters read: “Jadon desh vich lagai si Emergency, odon itihas de sabh ton kale dinan vich roshni di misaal lai ke tureya te laiya Emergency khilaf morcha” (when Emergency was imposed in the country, during the blackest days in history, he walked with a torch of light and opened a campaign against Emergency).

Parkash Singh Badal ne 7 mahine khud salakhan picche reh ke lokraj nu karaiya bahal (Parkash Singh Badal remained behind bars for seven months and reinstated people’s reign).

Cabinet minister Ajit Singh Kohar said, “We are getting the people of Punjab together against parties which have been bad for them. Emergency was a bad phase which caused much harm to people.”

The BJP has observed ‘Black Day’ on June 25 and 26 across the state to mark the imposition of the Emergency in the country in 1975.