CHANDIGARH: Spokesman of Akali Dal (Mann) party, which won the largest number of seats in Punjab, Gurtej Singh said his party recognized only the resolution passed at its meeting at Amritsar last month, which clearly demanded a “self-determined political state for the Sikhs within India.”
Addressing a press conference here, Gurtej Singh said he would not like to enter into any discussion about the Anandpur Sahib resolution. “Please don’t put words in my mouth,” he said.
Referring to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President L.K. Advani’s observations made at Calcutta. Gurtej Singh said there was mistaken notion about the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and a theocratic sub state. He said “there could never be a theocratic state of Sikhs as there ‘was no intermediary between the God and the Sikhs.
“The Sikhs are direct decedents of their gurus and they do not need any intermediary,” he said.
Gurtej Singh said a memorandum submitted to the state governor on behalf of the party demanded change in the administrative machinery appointed by the then Congress I government, ruling at the center.
Gurtej Singh said about 15,000 “innocent” Sikhs were in illegal detention and demanded their immediate elections to the state assembly and SGPC.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 26, 1990
