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Journalism of Courage
Om Prakash Chautala has grandiose plans to fight back the rebuke he got from the Centre on his plans to visit Lahore for collecting belongings of Sir Chhotu Ram, a peasant leader revered by Punjabi farmers both in India and Pakistan.
As his son Ajay Chautala and Tarlochan Singh, MP, — who finally went to Lahore after the Ministry of External Affairs denied permission to the Chief Minister — enter Wagah border on Wednesday afternoon, Chautala along with his Cabinet members and top bureaucrats would be there to formally welcome them.
Thereafter, INLD would carry out a five-day campaign across Haryana through a ‘‘rath yatra’’ led by Ajay which would showcase Sir Chhotu Ram’s belongings to an overwhelming peasant population. The belongings which were in possession of a businessman in Lahore would be housed in a museum at Sir Chhotu Ram’s native village of Ghari-Sala on the Delhi-Rohtak road on November 24 to commemorate his 124 birth anniversary.
Sources said INLD was busy preparing banners and posters to encash on the ‘yatra’ to mobilise farmers across the state.
‘‘We would tell people how the Congress at the Centre tried to thwart our efforts to commemorate the great peasant leader’s memorabilia,’’ Chautala’s spokesman told The Indian Express.
The sudden interest in Sir Chhotu Ram’s legacy comes in the backdrop of a subtle election campaign which has already gripped Haryana before the stipulated February elections are formally announced. Since Chhotu Ram was instrumental in getting peasants of undivided Punjab rid of money lenders way back in 1936, invoking his memories suits peasant-centric party like the INLD.
