CHANDIGARE: The much publicized meeting of the Akali Dal held here on March 1 following the expiry of Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann’s 48 hour ultimatum to the Center to withdraw the army and recall the Punjab Governor on Thursday ended on an inconclusive note.
The party merely adopted a tentative resolution seeking complete freedom. Conspicuous by their absence were the traditional Akali leaders Mann who was in the city throughout the day did not address newsmen after the meeting. It was instead addressed by the party organizing secretary Hundal.
The tentative resolution ambiguously stated that the meeting fully endorsed Mann’s call for complete independence given at convention at Anandpur Sahib on Thursday and also authorized him to reach a decision on the matter after taking broad consensus of all those who could not be present at the meeting. It was only after reporters persistence in seeking an elaboration on the term “complete independence” that Hundal said it meant a sovereign Sikh state equivalent to Khalistan. He added that Mann had announced this at Anandpur Sahib. Mann had announced on Wednesday that his party would review Indo-Sikh relations to decide once and for all between death and liberty for the Sikh nation. Hundal who was unable to give reporters a satisfactory explanation why Mann had failed to address journalists personally also could not say why most traditional Akali leaders had kept away from the meeting. While Badal’s absence was explained by saying that he was away in Uttar Pradesh Hundal said his party had been unable to establish contact with Tohra and Talwandi He also said the SGPC president Sibia was away in Delhi in connection with a court case.
The seven-hour meeting was attended only by the Akali Dal Mann faction working committee and its different presidents and general secretaries With the sole exception of the MP from Ferozpur Dhian Singh Mand no other Akali Dal MP was present at the meeting. The sole leader to be invited from the erstwhile Longowal faction Tota Singh was the only traditional Akali leader present at the meeting.
Through three significant resolutions pertaining to international affairs the party congratulated the US and its allies for their victory in the Gulf war urged the US to carve out a Separate Kurdistan for the Kurds and offered to send Sikh volunteers comprising mainly Sikh ex-servicemen militants and deserters to Kuwait to protect it from future aggression.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991
