NEW DELHI: Welcoming the announcement of Punjab polls five leading intellectuals and parliamentarians have urged the government to grant autonomous character to Punjab.
In a joint statement issued here Wednesday, Ram Jethmalani noted jurist, Sunil Dut, Congress (I) MP, S.S. Gill, former secretary to the government, Justice Narula and Patwant Singh regretted that the government had not been able to take action against those responsible for November 1984 rots.
Releasing the joint statement, Jethmalani, told newsmen that the plea of the Center that cases against these accused could be registered only when it was sure of conviction was tenable, both on normal and legal grounds.
The statement said that all the draconian laws which place unreasonable restrictions on liberty and were inconsistent with the: Constitution must be forth with repealed, All persons held without trail must be released and those held on serious criminal charges. Must either be speedily tried or pardoned. Those police officers who have gone beyond their briefs must also be brought to trial.
The statement went on say that once the elections were held in Punjab and a democratic government established, other minor problems like the territory and water disputes could be settled in accordance with law.
The statement went onto say that the Anandpur Sahib resolution had been unjustly condemned as a secessionist document.
In fact, the portion of the resolution that dealt with Center state relations and the federal character of Indian polity was a welcome contribution to political thought in India. It provided valuable guidance for marginal restructuring of the Indian polity.
The basic core of his document, namely, that India needs a strong center as well as strong states, was welcome, It was in his spirit that Sikh intellectuals who net under the aegis of the Bharat Mukti Morcha, Punjab, in October 198 suggested an autonomous stale with in the parameters of the Constitution as the solution of the Punjab problem. It was wrong to characterize this demand 3 secessionist or seditious.
The fiscal powers of all the states require to be considerably freed from central dominance, The states must have more control over their economic assets agriculture and nonagricultural products and energy resources.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1992
