Hooda stopped from unveiling freedom fighter’s statue
DISPUTE The community centre where the statue has been put up is locked in ownership dispute between Rohtak municipal corporation and a social welfare society; case in HC
ROHTAK : In the scorching afternoon of June, politics over a freedom fighter further heated up Rohtak on Sunday after the local administration stopped former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from unveiling the statue of late Madan Lal Dhingra at Rohtak’sMatuRamCommunityCentre.
The community centre, located in Gandhi Camp, has long been in dispute over its ownership battle between municipal corporation and Gandhinagar Social Welfare Society. The dispute over the ownership is pending in the Punjab and Haryana high court. The welfare society, which has “stooges” of Congress MP from Rajya Sabha Shadi Lal Batra in it, had constructed a statue of freedom fighter Madan Lal Dhingra.
For the unveiling programme, they had invited former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and BJP MP from Karnal Ashwini Chopra besides Batra.
While the BJP MP cancelled his plan to attend the ceremony at eleventh hour, the municipal corporation, too, slapped a notice calling the unveiling ceremony illegal on Saturday.
The Congress has alleged that the notice was slapped at the behest of local BJP MLA and state minister of cooperation Manish Grover, who got upset at not being invited for the unveiling ceremony, despite being in the government.
A large contingent of police force was deployed at the community centre on Sunday and barricades were installed to stop the former CM from unveiling the statue. Hooda was, however, allowed to address a gathering that had collected for the ceremony, where he attacked the BJP government.
“This is the first time that I’m seeing any government doing politics over freedom fighters. The BJP government has insulted the martyr by doing this. The statue was being constructed from past six months. Why didn't they issue a notice before?” Hooda asked.
The reply of Grover came soon, who accused Hooda of doing politics in the name of freedom fighters.
“Why didn’t they name the community centre in the memory of freedom fighter Dhingra if they were so serious in honouring him? This is all his politics which will not work,” Grover said.