CHANDIGARH: The Akali Dal (Mann) president, Simranjit Singh Mann, is not averse to participation in elections in future provided it is used as a stepping stone to attainment of sovereign and independent Sikh state.
Talking to newsmen at Qila Hamam Singh, his native village in Fategarh Sahib district recently, he said participation in elections and forming a government should be part of strategy and tactics for the achievement of the goal and not for diluting it.
Commenting upon the demand for confederation of sovereign Indian states, Mann said it amounted to backtracking from the goal of a sovereign and independent Sikh state and there would be no compromise on this goal. He said the Akalis made sacrifices by boycotting the February elections only towards this end. The Sikhs were facing state repression. the achievement of sovereign Sikh state must be the pre-condition for any future participation in elections.
He strongly opposed the demand for confederation of sovereign states saying it amounted to diluting the goal already set by the Sikhs and for which sacrifices were being made. He said raising of such demand was meant to sidetrack the real issue.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president and the senior Akali Dal (Badal) leader, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, has already stated that he is for confederation of sovereign states, The Bharti Kisan Union president, Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, is also credited with the same view.
In the sovereign Sikh state visualized by Mann, all the communities would enjoy equal fundamental rights and it would be a secular state. He said he had full respect for other communities.
When his attention was drawn to the division among the parties voicing the same demand, he said there was nothing wrong in it. He said both the Congress (I) and the Bharatya Janata Party were Hindu parties and similarly there could be a number of political parties representing the Sikhs. He also cited the example of Israel where a number of political parties worked for the attainment of the same goal.
The Akali Dal (Mann) chief expressed apprehensions about the army launching combing operations in the state and said it was going to be a martial law like situation, He said this would only add to the humiliation of the Sikhs. He said the Punjab police was only executing the orders of the Center.
He said the Sikh leaders were being prevented from going to the masses and the banning of anti-repression convention at Alamgir in Ludhiana district was the example. He himself has been prevented a number of times from attending even workers meetings.
He said the Sikhs were being made the targets even outside Punjab and cited the example of Pilibhit where he said the effort was to uproot Sikhs. He attributed the killings there to the government agencies. He said it was a pincer movement to disgrace the Sikhs and throw them out from the lands they had made cultivable over the years through hard work.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1992
