NEW DELHI: Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann in a statement here last week said that difference between Congress (I) and B.J.P. over their attitude towards norities was quantitative and not qualitative.
Mann made the statement after he was barred from attending a meeting of the national integration council held after a gap of several months in the annexed of Parliament house here.
The Akali leader responded to Indian government’s invitation presumably to make use of the occasion to air his unconventional views on India’s problems. Evidently, the govt was aware of his plan and its armed guards consequently drove away Mann from the gate of the hall as he refused to part with his kirpan.
The Badal Akali Dal, however, spurned the govt’s invitations on the ground that no useful purpose would be served in the event of the former chief minister attending the meeting whose resolutions a party spokesman said, had remained unimplemented.
Mann in his statement said he came to attend the meeting on the call of his con science and due to his commitment 10 the cause of minorities in the hope that better counsel would prevail with the govt. Otherwise, he said, the onus of failure of the conference would be on the Rao govt .The Akali leader said there was hardly any difference between the Congress (10 and the B.J.P. Both lacked sensitivity, tolerance and wisdom to understand the sentiments of minorities in India. Mann said the operation bluestar was the precursor of what is happening in Ayodhia. He warned that India would have to face the wrath of the entire Muslim world if it allowed the Babri masjid to be demolished by communal bigots and Hindu fundamentalists.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 8, 1991
