From New Dispatches
CHANDIGARH The SGPC president, Mr. G. S. Tohra, lodged in judicial custody at Nidampur rest house in Sangrur district, has conveyed through a lawyer that he is against any change in or addition to the Akali Dal constitution to seek registration of the UAD (1D) with the Election Commission. Mr, Gorvinder Singh, Dhillon, the Vice President of the Punjab and Haryana Sikh Lawyers Association and a member of the Simranjit Singh Mann defense committee, said Tohra had made this clear to him when he met him at the rest house on August 12.
Mr. Tohra had also told Mr. Shaminder Singh and Mr. Mewa Singh Gill, former MPs, when they called on him on Thursday, that the Akali constitution was not to be changed in any manner, Mr. Dhillon said. The SGPC president, according to Mr. Dhillon, was of the view that the Minpiri, concept ‘was an essential part of the Akali ideology. The SGPC chief, Mr. Dhillon stated, also conveyed through him that the registration with the Election Commission should be sought on simple declaration accepting the conditions set forth by the Election Commission. If the Commission do not register the UAD (T) as a political party. “We can contest elections as independents or in collaboration with a political party”., Mr Tohra said, According to Mr. Dhillon, Mr. Tohra said the Sikh masses would reject the Akali Dal (L) led by Surjit Singh Barnala, if he made any changes in the Dal constitution the elections would prove which was the real Akali Dal.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 18, 1989
