CHANDIGARH: Akali Dal (Badal) President Parkash Singh Badal sated here on Tuesday that his party has deep faith in the path of peace and democracy, however, the Central and State Governments were following a policy of blood and iron and turning the whole of Punjab into a torture chamber, he said.

Mr. Badal said that the adoption of are solution in favor of Khalistan by the six Panthic Parties at Anandpur Sahib last month was the result of the constant injustice, betrayal and persecution to which they had been subjected by Central leaders,

The Governments brutal policies of willful discrimination and relish refusal to listen to even cone of our genuine grievances has left the Sikhs with no option but to internationally expose such a faithless system.”

He warned that there may only be a last straw for the Centre to clutch at, but for this it would have to take a really bold, definite and lasting political step to bridge the chasm between the Sikhs and the Centre,

Mr, Badals threat to internationalize the Punjab issue comes just days before his departure to the United States where he will undergo eye surgery for a cataract.

Mr. Badal who was arrested before the February 19 Punjab polls. was released by the Punjab Government along with two other Akali leaders on “humanitarian and medical grounds” a few days ago.

The Akali leader said that not even one of the countless promises made to the Sikhs since Independence had been fulfilled. “It has been a story of broken promises all the way and yet we have borne it all with tremendous patience.” He alleged that the Sikhs had been subjected to inhuman discriminate politically, socially and economically for the last 40 years.

Mr. Badal said the holiest of the Sikh shrines was assaulted, thousands of innocent Sikhs were massacred and forces sent to Punjab commit genocide, all of which had forced the Sikh store consider their relationship with the Centre.

In a tone of deep aguish, Mr. Badal recounted that he had personally always stood for a peace full and honorable solution to the: problem and his party had waged a long struggle to convince the Centre that the Sikh sense of deprivation and discrimination was very deep and definite steps were needed to remove it, “But the center always turned a deaf ear to all our pleadings and watched with amusement the growing ide of bloodshed in the state” Systematic attempts, he said, were made and are being made to destroy the religious, cultural economic and psychological identity of the Sikhs.

The Akali leader recalled that the Sikhs had been the most patriotic people in the country ad had shed the maximum blood for the independence of India and for its defence after 1947, But such has been the ingratitude of the Central leaders that instead of rewarding this community they have embarked upon a course of humiliating and demoralizing it.

Mr, Badal said that things had reached such a pass that the Sikhs had no faith left in the Centre, the Constitution or the system. “We have to think our destiny afresh.”

Article extracted from this publication >> May 1, 1992