Last modified: 2011-02-18 by ian macdonald
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Lok Bhalai Party was founded in Punjab in 1999 by Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, formerly a prominent member of Shiromani Akali Dal and Union Minister of Social Welfare 1996–98. The party is concentrating on various socio-economic issues, such as the punishing of fraudulent travel agents who grabbed large amounts of money from numerous Punjabis on false promises of sending them abroad - by the end of 2007, 15 million rupees were returned to the owners. Another cause, which brought a large support of women to the party, is helping the "holiday wives" - girls married to Indian citizens living abroad during their visits to homeland and abandoned after the husbands go back. The party is also concerned for problems of Indian citizens living abroad, especially those imprisoned on charges of illegal immigration, and for improving the position of under-privileged strata of Indian society.
Sources:
[1] Wikipedia page about Lok Bhalai Party:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lok_Bhalai_Party
[2] Wikipedia page about
Balwant Singh Ramoowalia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balwant_Singh_Ramoowalia
[3] Heroes 2007 -
published at The Times of India website on 2007-12-23:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2643856.cms
[4]
Presentation of Balwant Singh Ramoowalia at the Lok Bhalai Party Youth Wing
website:
http://lokbhalaipartyyouthwing.com/president.html
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 23 January 2011
The party flag, as seen in the photo gallery at the Lok Bhalai Party
Youth Wing website:
http://lokbhalaipartyyouthwing.com/gallery.html has five horizontal stripes,
in yellow, green, white, blue and red colors, respectively.
Tomislav Todorovic, 23 January 2011
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 23 January 2011
The shades of yellow
and blue vary somewhat - photos shown in the Ludhiana Tribune website report
from a pre-election rally on 2004-05-03:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040504/ldh.htm/a> and in the report about
the meeting of the central working committee of the party on 2005-05-02:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050503/ldh.htm show darker shades of
these colors, that of yellow being the one known as "saffron", while the photo from the protest
against the policies of the Punjab State Government on 2005-12-05:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051206/ldh.htm shows lighter shades, the
same as those seen at the party youth wing website.
Tomislav Todorovic,
23 January 2011
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 23 January 2011
The website of the party (no longer available online) contained a photo (link
broken): http://lokbhalaiparty.in/raamoo/DSC_0063.JPG
which was showing the flag with "deep saffron" (light orange) instead of yellow
and dark shade of blue, as well as the party name inscribed in black on the
white field (see image). The name,
inscribed in Gurmukhi script, was not completely visible on the photo, but an
image of the party logo from the same site, which is now available at the
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lok_Bhalai_Party.png shows it inscribed in
both English and Punjabi and reveals that the party name is the same in both
languages - the last word in Gurmukhi inscription is the transcription of
English word "party".
Tomislav Todorovic, 23 January 2011