FEROZEPUR: Going by the inclement weather and protests by farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to skip the rally organised by BJP at Ferozepur on Wednesday. The Prime Minister though landed at Bhisiana airbase in Bathinda as scheduled but as it was remaining regularly, the chopper could not take off. After waiting for nearly 20 minutes at the air force airbase, the entourage of Prime Minister took to road to reach Hussainiwala. The farmers had stopped the vehicles traffic and the convoy could not move further.
The convoy returned to Bhisiana airbase from nearly 30 kilometres ahead of Hussainiwala. The rally gone ahead and some leaders of BJP including MP Hans Raj Hans and BJP state president Ashwani Sharma besides former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh addressed the rally.
It was around 3pm that the announcement was made about ending the rally.
Ashwani Sharma made scathing attack on Charanjit Singh Channi government of Punjab accusing it of not providing any security and not clearing way for the convoy of Prime Minister. Sharma said that “it is highly shameful that the state government has miserably failed in providing security to the Prime Minister of the country. The state government acted in highly 8rresponsible manner that too when it was apprised that the PM will travel by road and all the necessary action should be taken for his smooth and safe road but the government not gave any heed and it will have to pay for robbing the state a momentus moment when projects worth thousands of crores were to be launched”.
He also said that Channi government also put various hurdles in the way of hundreds of buses heading for the rally and harassed them so that they could not reach the rally. He also accused government of deploying persons in the garb of farmers to oppose the Prime Minister.
In the meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that PM landed at Bathinda from where he was to go to National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala by helicopter. Due to rain and poor visibility, PM waited for about 20 minutes for the weather to clear out.
When the weather didn’t improve, it was decided that he would visit the memorial via road, which would take more than 2 hours. He proceeded to travel by road after necessary confirmation of necessary security arrangements by the DGP Punjab Police.
Around 30 kms away from National Martyrs Memorial, when the PM’s convoy reached a flyover, it was found that the road was blocked by some protestors. The PM was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes. This was a major lapse in the security of PM.
The PM’s schedule & travel plan was communicated well in advance to Punjab government. As per procedure, they have to make necessary arrangements for logistics, security as well as keep a contingency plan ready.
Also in view of the contingency plan Punjab Government has to deploy additional security to secure any movement by road, which were clearly not deployed. After this security lapse, it was decided to head back to Bathinda airport.
MHA stated it is taking cognisance of this serious security lapse and has sought a detailed report from the state government. State government has also been asked to fix responsibility for this lapse and take strict action.