Chandigarh: Punjab Sikhs movement against the Delhi organized February 19 election appears to have unnerved the Indian government authorities who are desperately looking for ways to censure a respectable turn-out.

It is now clear to the Indian government that the boycott movement has caught the imagination of the rural and urban Sikhs. That means that India cannot bank on an overwhelming majority of rural Sikhs votes. It still counts the urban Hindus as a factor that could be helpful. But the element of fear has grown so much that even tis section of the population will be far from enthusiastic about participating in the electoral process.

What has evidently intrigued Indian authorities is the failure of militant Sikh activists who remain outdated Introduction of violence in the counter-poll agitation implied in the killings of half a dozen teachers who may have offered their services to perform election duty and a staying of several election campaigners belonging to the B.J.P in Punjab’s urban areas such as Amritsar and Ludhiana has added to the woes of the authorities.

Indian authorities have tied to stem the rot by are sting leaders of half a dozen Akali and student federation groups. Since those leaders would have come out of jails to organize the boycott movement that they are kept behind bars at least until the election is over. The leaders who have been arrested include-Parkash Singh Badal Simaranjit Singh Mann Bhai Manjit Singh Ranjit Singh Brahmpuria and Dhian Singh Mand.

To carry on the boycott movement the S.G.P.C. tied to hold a meeting at Anandpur Saheb on Tuesday. But the authorities arrested a large number of S.G.P.C members to frustrate their effort to pass are solution But Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Jagdev Singh Talwandi the old war horses sneaked into Anandpur Sahib to complete the formality of a resolution calling upon Sikhs to boycott the election This amounts to giving religious touch to the poll boycott appeal. The government was evidently afraid of this measure

The agitation is being continued by second rung functionaries of the Akali groups who out maneuvered the police at Chandigarh on Wednesday to make a public appeal to Sikhs at a press conference asking people not to join the electoral drama. Instead the second rung leaders called for a 72 hour bandh on the eve of the election to make the boycott quite visible. The police failed to get information on the location of the Press Conference because the newsmen were invited to a spot where they were directed to another secret spot.

The Chandigarh administration acting in concert with the Punjab authorities stopped several thousand workers of B.K.U outside Chandigarh where they wanted to come to intensify their poll boycott movement. “The security forces in Punjab also ordered that all schools coll… and other educational institutions would remain closed till February 24. The order evidently aimed at stopping the movement of teachers towards schools. The government will have to depend on teachers to function as election organizers. Another reason for closing down educational institutions was to make room for security forces to stay in the absences of any alternative accommodation. The strategy of the government appears to be to concentrate its forces in major towns to instill confidence among the Hindu population so that there is respectable voter turnout. But the counter strategy of Sikh armed activists is to intensify scare in major towns. While G.P.C.C chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra calculates that the voter turn-out on February 19 will not exceed 10 per cent the Indian authorities feel that its security forces will somehow manage a 30 percent voting and the figure will be considered by Delhi as “satisfactory”.

Even the S.G.P.C which has all along been acting in concert with Congress (I) an the Punjab issue makes it a point to Congress the ruling part of worrying about winning about winning “all the 13 Lok Sabha seats from Punjab” to holster its strength in India’s lower house and not about solving the Punjab problem.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1992