Dear Readers, As India celebrates its 62nd Republic Day, Punjab Today goes to the town square to get an idea of the State of the Republic. The way Democracy at the Chowk functions is the best barometre of how far a people, a nation state have travelled as a Republic. In the upcoming issue of Punjab Today that hits newsstands on Saturday, January 22, 2011, we chose Chandigarh’s Matka Chowk to bring you a detailed story of an elite city declares death to democracy at the chowk.
Worse, Punjab government seems to be in cahoots, since it not only kept silent at the happenings, but rather went ahead and has turned entire Punjab into a Matka Chowk. The biggest institution that was to guard our democracy, the sign of the Republic in our state, our Punjab Assembly, has passed Draconian Acts against its own citizens, thus delivering a huge blow to democracy.
Punjab Today’s story that calls you to Act to Prevent Damage to Democracy describes a situation where there is a complete bar on protest. In Chandigarh. Little Khushpreet was killed by his kidnappers, and his parents and the citizenry are angry, are protesting, are thinking of ways how other children remain safe and the guilty are punished. In Punjab, Khushi’s parents would first have to seek written permission to hold a dharna, to light candles. Or they would have been in jail. Finally, the Government is out to get you with law. And here you thought you will go to the law if the government came after you!
PUNJAB TODAY’s SPECIAL REPUBLIC DAY EDITION invites you to come to the Chowk. There is no other way, because the media that comes to your home is also silent. It is not telling you the story.
The media, in fact, is itself a story. A Day & Night story. A story of the mafia. Cable Mafia. Read the latest issue of PUNJAB TODAY for the sickening ways in which democracy is functioning in the media domain. Also, how cable channel honchos sometime settle scores at five-star hotels as happened in Chandigarh on New Year eve.
But perhaps the most incredulous bit comes last. PUNJAB TODAY finds top brass of government, senior IAS officers, SGPC head, senior architects all sleeping on the job as they come up with an award-winning model of Golden Temple Grand Entrance Plaza plans but get it horrifically wrong. The Akal Takht goes missing, and the causeway is on the wrong side. And they all claim they were all awake. With eyes wide shut?
In case of any difficulty in procuring a copy of Punjab Today, please call 9814.231.777or mail [email protected]. Happy Reading, and yes, Happy Republic Day. See you for the sake of Democracy at the Chowk in the latest issue of Punjab Today. Press Release
