NEW DELHI, India: Atal Bihari Bajpayee squarely blamed the Prime Minister for his directionless policy on Punjab and charged that he was purely acting for political considerations. Mr. Bajpayee also regretted even the Home Minister, Mr. Buta Singh, had embroiled himself in controversy on the Punjab issue, there by losing his credibility. The BJP leader said Mr. Rajiv Gandhi has vacillated over the Punjab policy and the entire border state was aflame. His whole concern was to draw political mileage out of the agony of the Punjabis, Hindus as well as Sikhs. Bajpayee released the draft resolution of the prelim nary session. Which demanded the creation of the security belt all along the Pakistan border and supply of small arms to the people for self-defense, liberal facilities for training in the use of those arms? Mr. Bajpayee also demanded that the government should immediately take this issue of Pakistan’s intervention to the United Nat ions, Nonaligned Nations, SA ARC, and other world bodies. The BJP leader charged Mr. Gandhi that he had failed to create international opinion against Pakistan’s involvement in Punjab. He said that the government had rushed thought the 59th Amendment to the Constitution recently to impose presscensorhip in Punjab and defer elections. The Prime Minister was not serious about Punjab killings and the news of the killings was suppressed in order to create semblance of improved law and order. Bajpayee expressed the fear that the Prime Minister might do any misadventure and put the nation in jeopardy. He asked the government to come out with a white paper on Punjab especially listing the involvement of Pakistan in the border areas.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 15, 1988
