LUDHIANA: The president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Talwandi), Jagdey Singh Talwandi, has termed the rejection of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution by a Congress(1) gathering on the occasion of Hola Mohalla, presided over by the Chief Minister, Beant Singh, as a cheap gimmick.
Talwandi said recently that Singh was not competent enough to get a verdict on the resolution from a stage managed gathering. He felt much importance should not be attached to it as it came from an “illegitimate” government.
He said the Chief Minister seemed to be forgetting that this resolution had now been accepted all over the country since it sought more powers for the states. The Sarkaria Commission and the Rajiv Longowal accord took this resolution into consideration, granting it due recognition.
Talwandi further said that this resolution was now all the more relevant since the Orissa Chief Minister, Biju Patnaik, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalitha, the West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu and even the Bharatiya Janata Party were striving for de centralization of power.
The veteran Akali leader observed that Beant Singh was playing the game of unnecessarily downgrading the Akalis so as to make their ranks confused and keep them busy like this so that they forgot about the genuine demands of Punjab.
He asked Beant Singh to take a look from the other Chief ministers and fight for the interests of Punjab, instead of bartering away the state’s claims, PATIALA: Gurcharan Singh Tohra ridiculed the Chief Minister, Beant Singh’s rejection of Anandpur Sahib resolution. Reacting to reports in this regard, Tohra said Beant Singh or the Congress had no right to reject a historic document which, he said, did not need the endorsement of a puppet government. He said the Akali Dal, with a sense of fore sight, had demanded more powers for states through the resolution 20 years ago. He said it was later that all other major parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, raised voice for decentralization of powers to states.
Tohra said that the crowd in Congress meeting at Anandpur Sahib was government sponsored and the government employees were forced to give attendance there,
He said that the political drama enacted by Beant Singh had no political significance. He said that Akali Dal (Badal) would give a show of strength on March 14 at its Jalandhar rally. He said that people of the state had full faith in his party.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 19, 1993
