PATIALA: Senior Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader, Simranjit Singh Mann, while talking got media per- sons here, said that his party had failed in highlighting either the political aim of the Sikhs or in curbing the violation of Sikh human rights by the Beant Singh government, during their Holla Mohalla conference at Anandpur. Sahib.
Mann felt that the Chief Minister, Beant Singh, had remained on the offensive while addressing the Con- gress Holla Mohalla conference where he dubbed the Akalis as secessionists and anti-nationalists. He also made an attack on the demand for implementation of the Amritsar Declaration, he said.
The Akali Dal (Amritsar) had organizer’s conference at Anandpur Sahib, which was addressed by Akali leaders, chief among whom was the SGPC chief, Gurcharan Singh Tohra; Kuldip Singh Wadala, a senior leader of the Akali Dal (Badal); and Prem Singh Chandumajra. However, Parkash Singh Badal did not participate in the conference,
Mann was brought here to be produced in a court, in a sedition case registered against him at the Civil Lines police station, for having given a speech on Feb. 14, 1994. Mann said that Parkash Singh Badal, who avoided the Holla Mohalla conference, should have addressed (the conference to tell the Sikhs what he had in mind regarding their problems and other issues. The detained leader said that Tohra and Badal should have. -used the occasion to tell the Sikhs
about the injustice being meted out to them in Punjab. Thousands of Sikhs 1 had been detained in various jails in Punjab and other states, Mann expressed dissatisfactions over the action of the Delhi state government in initiating murder proceedings against I scores of Congress leaders and senior police officers. He said that he expected the Delhi government to get them prosecuted and got them adequate jail terms. In the absence of the arrest of the culprits of the November 1984 riots, registration of murder cases would hardly serve any purpose, he fell
In reply to a question, Mann said that the demand for the Amritsar Declaration could not be sacrificed because it was the political demand of the Sikhs and not a faction of the Akalis. i Mann did not deny the possibility of having an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next Punjab Assembly elections. However, he 1 emphasized the need for maintaining the independent religious identity of the Akalis by perusing their political aim after taking into confidence the Hindus, Muslims and the Dalits.
He said that the sedition case for which he was being tried, was also registered against, Tohra, Bhai Manjit Singh and Prem Singh Chandumajra but they had not been arrested or charged. This clearly indicated, that the Punjab government wanted to keep him in jail to check his political activities.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 24, 1995
