Akalis Destroy Mohali Stadium

[Raju]

This is all over the news today:

http://www.timesnow.tv/photo.cms?msid=1715912

Mohali pitch dug up, Badal says sorry

Friday, March 02, 2007 06:16:55 pm

Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal (left) Akali Dal workers run amok on the cricket pitch during the swearing-in ceremony

Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal could not have gotten off to a worse start as Chief Minister of the state. On Friday (March 2), just hours after being sworn-in, the chief minister was lambasted for damaging the pitch at one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in the country – Mohali.

The incident happened because the Mohali ground was chosen as the venue for the swearing-in ceremony. The stadium, an international cricket venue, has three pitches. The area around each of the pitches was dug up to put in place pandals to accommodate 4,000 Akali Dal supporters, while chairs were placed around the pitch.

Twelve hours later the nightmare continued as in a show of strength, hundreds of Akali supporters converged on the beautiful greens while their leaders were sworn in.

Cricket experts believe that irreparable damage could have been done to the pitches which are among the best in the world.

http://www.timesnow.tv/photo.cms?msid=1715925

Workers hammer a pole for a pandal into the Mohali cricket pitch at night on Thursday (March 1)

The action by Akali workers kicked up a huge storm, which quick took on a political colour. Many felt that, with cricket season in full swing, the Akalis could have avoided using a cricket pitch for a political spectacle as it were. Finally under pressure Prakash Singh Badal apologised to cricket fans on TIMES NOW, and promised to pay for the damage.

Cricket board pins the blame

But the apology is not likely to buy Badal any peace as, wearing his Congress party hat, BCCI Vice President Rajiv Shukla has taken on the Akali Dal for its vandalism.

“It is not in the interest in the people of the state that they destroy the stadium. It shows the anarchy that the Akali Dal promote, it shows the standard of governance, from day one they are trying to set precendents by which hooliganism prevails in the state,” said Shukla.

(By Poonam Bath)\

link

[jayd]

Cricket experts believe that irreparable damage could have been done to the pitches which are among the best in the world.

This is only after their swearing ceremony. Imagine the state they will leave Punjab in after 5 years. Sign of things to come.........I would love to be proved wrong. Being 80 years old, I hope Badal tries to leave a better legacy this time around.

[Raju]

The video clips of the same on tv were horrifying, a huge bunch of yahoos jumping all over the place, breaking glasses, jumping over the seperation bund that seperates the ground from the stadium, destroying the ground, uprooting chairs, and leaving the ground as a huge trash bin.

Considering that Mohali was one of the premium cricket grounds in the country comparable to Lord's or MCG, can anyone imagine such a thing happening at Lords ??

Badal's swearing-in leaves Mohali cricket ground in tatters

From correspondents in Punjab, India, 10:02 PM IST

Cricket players and lovers of the game were certainly not those to feel happy at the state of the Mohali stadium after the swearing-in ceremony of Parkash Singh Badal as new Punjab chief minister Friday.

The ground was virtually left destroyed with thousands of people with shoes and the iron-legged chairs digging into the ground and poles mercilessly driven into the lush green outfield.

Over 20,000 Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters had turned up inside the stadium.

The alliance leadership opted for the PCA stadium for the ceremony instead of keeping it a solemn affair at the Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh.

Out of these, nearly 6,000 were in the cricket ground itself where at normal times not more than 15 people are allowed when a game is being played.

Not only that, supporters of Badal and others took the liberty of invading the Square - where the five pitches of international standard are laid.

They squatted, ate, walked, gave the strips a closer look by digging with their car keys and other hard substances and littered the whole area.

Though the square itself was fenced with a net and ropes, the end of the swearing in ceremony of Badal as chief minister and 17 other ministers saw the fencing being trampled and hundreds of people moving right through the pitches.

At the entrance of the imposing stadium - touted as one of the best in the world, scores of pots with plants were trampled under hundreds of feet and limousines of newly-appointed ministers and VIPs. Landscaped flowerbeds were not spared either with many people standing on them.

Incidentally, Badal had been sworn in at the same venue in 1997 but supporters and public were not allowed in the ground area.

Chaos ruled at the swearing-in ceremony with people entering restricted areas for VIPs and the media. Pushing, jostling, tempers running high and confusion reigning.

Senior Akali leader and now minister Kanwaljit Singh had to shout at people to make way for VIPs, including Badal himself.

Amidst the chaos arrived VIPs like L.K. Advani, BJP president Rajnath Singh, chief ministers Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Vasundhara Raje Scindia (Rajasthan), former prime minister I.K. Gujral, former defence minister George Fernandes, former Haryana chief minister OM Prakash Chautala and father-son duo Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah.

Things were no better outside with the district administration and police failing to make proper arrangements for traffic and security resulting in serious traffic jams outside the stadium.

By Jaideep Sarin (Staff Writer, © IANS)

http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20070302/41717.htm