DEVIGARH (PATIALA): Publicly disapproving the violence in the State for the first time, the President of the SGPC, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, said “the battle for the freedom of Punjab would be won by building a strong people’s movement.”
Addressing a meeting of panches and SAR panches of Bhunerheri block here recently, Tohra said that “people do not like the battle of the guns.” The Center had cough weapons at its command Lo suppress the violent movement in the stale.
He said Akalis were fighting for a “big cause “and the demand of grants for villages was a minor issue for them. The government did not have enough money to pay wages to its employees. How could panchayats expect grants from it?
He said all reports of peace returning to Punjab were a false propaganda. The security forces had achieved peace “outwardly” through bullets but there could be no peace tills a “fire was burning in the hearts and heads of Sikhs.”
Angrily, Tohra said the Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, was using Beant Singh as a “handle of the axe” which was being used to finish the Sikhs. The only package the Center had given to Beant Singh was of bullets which were being used by the security forces to suppress the Sikh struggle. The struggle was launched to “stop the exploitation” of Punjab and its farmers. Beant Singh should resign as the Central government had so far given him nothing despite assuring him of economic and political packages. Punjab had even been denied its share of waters from the Yamuna River. The state was not called to participate in the meeting summoned for signing a memorandum of understanding.
He said Beant Singh should ask the Prime Minister to scrap the Gurdwara Act so that a direct fight between the Sikhs and the Center could start. He called upon the panches and SAR panches to live with dignity and work for unity among the rural people.
Tohra said a campaign for baptizing Sikhs would be started and by 1999, all of them would be baptized. Government agencies were “creating problems” in the baptism, which was a religious right of the Sikhs.
Parkash Singh Badal, President of the Akali Dal (Badal), said that his party was preparing the masses at the grassroots level for launching a “fourth battle” to fight for the demands of Punjab. The three previous ones the battle for a Punjabi suba, the morcha against emergency and the dharm yudh morcha were won by the Akalis, he added.
The Congress party was a communal organization to the core and its facade of secularism had been exposed. The Congress had demolished the Akal Takht, it connived with certain forces to demolish the Babri masjid and it was attacking various churches in Punjab, he alleged. The religious places of minorities had systematically been made a target.
The people should expect nothing from the ministers of Beant Singh’s government as they had only nonpoint program to “loot and rob” the people. He said it was a shame that Beant Singh had to suspend his MLA, who was involved in a sex scandal.
Badal said the March 14 rally which was being organized by the Akali Dal at Jalandhar would be a turning point in the history of the state. It would mark the beginning of another peaceful struggle for securing the rights of Punjab.
He called upon the panches and SAR panches to unite to save the people in the rural areas from “state repression” and to fight the forthcoming block samiti elections.
Mr.Prem Singh Chandumajra, a former minister who had organized the meeting, said the attendance of panches and SAR panches in a big way had proved that the candidates belonging to the Akali Dal (Badal) had won in a large number.
Amnk Singh Malipur, general secretary of the district Akali Jatha, moved five resolutions which were passed. Though the resolutions, the rising prices of agricultural inputs and state repression were condemned. A warning was also given to the government against the scrapping of the Gurdwara Act.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 5, 1993
