Doctors without frontiers. People against borders. Borders
dividing families. The lines on earth incite, excite and
exhort many. But this was rather unique. A cricket match
result gets an MLA of a nationalist party so excited that he
rushes to the border, hundreds in tow, to shout abuses
across the electrified fence! But then such is the stuff our
politics is made of. Imagine a Nannu-style MLA in Gaza
strip!
Is this Cricket? BJP MLA Plays Key Role in fracas at Border
S P Singh
If a clash between India and Pakistan, even if on a cricket pitch, attracts astronomical numbers of eyeballs, how can a local politico in a mofussil-sized town on the international border resist the temptation of squeezing out some hard to come by media publicity?
After ugly scenes of across-the-border stone-pelting between Indians and Pakistanis at Hussainiwala border last Sunday, the role of Ferozepur BJP MLA
Sukhpal Singh Nannu has come under a shadow as he had reportedly ferried hundreds of his supporters to the border who initially indulged in provocative sloganeering.
Deeply involved in the heat of electioneering for the local Municipal Committee scheduled to go to elections on March 9, Nannu apparently sensed a good photo op in the match.
On Saturday, thanks to some pooled effort, Ferozepur citizens got a bonanza of watching the match on a huge screen at the V S Palace outside Kasoori Gate. Nannu was also among the audience, as were a number of his supporters.
Moments after India won, not only was a decision taken to take out a big procession to the Hussaniwala border but also the local media was invited.
While sources said nearly a 1,000 odd mob had gathered there to watch the retreat ceremony on Sunday, Nannu said he had taken only around 200 people.
“After all, we are patriots, and we had gone there to congratulate our brothers in the armed forces who are defending us against Pakistan,” Nannu said. The BJP patriots had also taken along a quintal of laddoos to be distributed to BSF jawans.
Nannu said his entire group had gone in a motorcycle caravan, but claimed that the trouble had started from Pakistani side. Sources however said many of Nannu’s supporters had initially raised provocative slogans and even hurled invectives at Pakistani side but things went out of hand when they threw laddoos towards Pakistan side.
Nannu however claimed some Pakistanis had provoked the Indian crowd by lifting up their kurtas in a vulgar fashion.
The highly charged mob then seemingly went out of control, forcing a mild lathi charge which left some injured. “Given the circumstances, and the provocation created by Nannu’s supporters, things could have gone out of hand. A border is a highly sensitive zone where people from two sides come physically very close to each other and the celebration of aggression at the retreat must not be coupled with provocation,” said a senior official who was a witness to the ugly episode of Sunday. He also noted that after much chappal throwing, no one returned barefoot from the border.
“To whom did all the chappals belonged?” he said.
Deputy Commissioner Raminder Singh however told The Indian Express that no one was injured in lathi charge. “There was chappal and stone throwing. Some people, that too very few, could have sustained some minor injuries in the stampede,” the DC, who was an eye witness to the incident, said.
World Cup border After BSF, the DC too is now keeping a watch on the IB, thanks to the World Cup heat. Sunday’s hooliganism has forced the administration to daily post an executive magistrate during the Retreat ceremony at the Hussainiwala border.
“The arrangement will continue till the conclusion of the World Cup. Besides, I am now getting a daily update on the number of people visiting the border post. Larger crowds will be now stopped 200 yards short of the border to prevent any recurrence of the incident,” Raminder Singh told The Indian Express.
March 5, 2001