LUDHIANA: The Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh, was hooted down when he came to preside over the annual Prof Mohan Singh cultural mela here.
No sooner did the chairman of the foundation organizing the mela, Jagdev Singh Jassowal, announced that Beant Singh would address the audience, that the people standing in the rear started shouting in disapproval.
Beant Singh rushed to the mike and in a bid to pacify the young crowd skipped the customary preliminaries and straightaway observed that he realized their sentiments that they had gathered to enjoy the mela not to listen to speeches.
In his shortest speech delivered anywhere, the chief minister spoke just for about a minute so as not to further annoy the audience. He reiterated his commitment to get Punjab’s pending demands conceded and left in a hurry, without announcing any help for the mela organizers.
Earlier, the president of the Prof Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation, Pargat Singh Grewal, too was hooted down when he got up to read his welcome address on the arrival of the chief minister.
Grewal too had to leave immediately and a female folk singer Satwinder Bitti was brought on Stage.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 28, 1994
