LUDHIANA: The Central Government is exploring the possibility of constituting an all-party forum to resolve all pending issues pertaining to Punjab. It has already established contact with several fringe political parties in Punjab and is also trying to rope in 4 section of the Shiromani Akali Dal headed by Parkash. Singh Badal as part of this exercise. This is the impression gathered by various leaders from the border state who met Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and other union leaders last week.
According to general secretary of Punjab unit of Janata Dal, Harish Khanna, who, along with national general secretary of the party, Teja Singh Tiwana, and district president, Subhash Beri, met Gowda and other senior leaders of United Front, the government was keen to start a dialogue with the “right” people so as to remove all pending issues relating to Punjab once and for all before the scheduled assembly elections in the state.
The sources said that the Center was in touch with a section of top SAD leadership including Captain Amarinder Singh, so as to evolve a consensus on the matter. Some SAD leaders were not averse to joining the union cabinet provided the government takes concrete steps to resolve problems of Punjab. When asked about these moves, Gowda maintained that no senior leader of the party could unilaterally align with the United Front government and said the party would collectively decide about any such move, though he did not pin much hope on the Congress backed government, he added that SAD could extend support if it accepted Akali demands.
He Akali Dal (Amritsar), whose president Simranjit Singh Mann, met Gowda at Amritsar airport last week and submitted a two page memorandum, however, is hopeful that Gowda will make an honest attempt towards finding a lasting solution to the various issues concerning Punjab and the Sikhs. The party general secretary, Jagmohan Singh, said that no central government since 1984 had attempted to break the impasse.
In the memorandum, Mann observed that “overtly there may be peace in Punjab but all religious and political issues await a political solution. The treatment of all disputes and dissenting political opinion is the main reason for the malaise.”
Mann said that the new government could make a beginning by releasing Sikh detainees languishing without trial in jails in different states, waiving off loans and interest of victims of November 1984 riots and stopping the misuse of antiterrorism laws.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1996
