New Delhi: In what came as an embarrassment for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a march organised by the party to protest the forcible haircut of a Sikh teenager turned into an anti-BJP protest.
The activists shouted slogans against SAD ally, BJP, and also burnt Rajasthan government's effigy.
Supporters of Akali Dal (Panthak) leader Manjit Singh, a breakaway grouping of former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's party, shouted slogans against the BJP during a march organised by the SAD to protest the attack on Jaipur's Indrapreet Singh (17).
The event was attended by SAD Delhi chief Avtar Singh Hit, a close lieutenant of Badal, and senior SAD leader Onkar Singh Thapar.
Throughout the march from Delhi's Bangla Sahib gurdwara to Jantar Mantar, Sikh activists raised slogans against the BJP and burned Rajasthan government's effigy accusing it of anti-minorityism.
"We don't know how the march, planned to protest violation of religious rights, got converted into an anti-BJP protest," a senior Akali leader, who requested anonymity, said.
The SAD, part of the Opposition NDA, is a senior ally of the BJP in Punjab, where elections are due in February.
"Today's event did become a political embarrassment especially in the light of the upcoming elections in Punjab," the Akali leader said.
In Delhi, both the SAD and the Akali Dal (Panthak) aim to take religious power in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), currently under control of pro-Congress groups.
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