Faridkot, Punjab (April 14, 2014): According to certain media reports Shiromani Akali Dal Badal candidate from Faridkot Lok Sabha seat was ‘greeted’ with black flags by residents of a village, where she addressed an election rally on April 12 evening.
According to Hindustan Times: [a]ctivists of the Punjab Khet Majdoor Union (PKMU) greeted the [Badal Dal] leaders, including SAD (Badal) candidate from here Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, with black flags in Nangal village on Saturday evening when they visited the village to seek votes.
Activists, including women and children, had assembled two hours before the visit of the leaders to the community hall where the SAD (Badal) candidate was scheduled to address the residents.
“We had decided to register our protest by showing black flags to the SAD leaders when they visited our villages to seek votes because the government had backtracked from accepting our demands after a week-long protest in Bathinda in February,” Gurpal Singh, district general secretary of the union, reportedly said.
“When we had been protesting, none of the SAD leaders listened to us. Even during the last year’s kidnapping and rape case, people continued their struggle for many days to get justice, but Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, MP, did not turn up to show sympathy with the victim girl’s family,” said Buta Singh, state committee member of union.
It is notable that in recent days Harsimrat Kaur, Badal Dal’s candidate from Bathinda constituency, was also shown black flags at various places during her election campaign. She was even prevented from entrying a village by the protesting villagers.