NEW DELHI: The notification on elections in Punjab has been kept in abeyance as the government is making the last ditch effort to Persuade the Akalis particularly Parkash Singh Badal a former Chief Minister of Punjab to participate in the ensuing poll The Center is willing to work on a Package for Punjab to make it Possible for some of the Akali leaders to participate in poll although the Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao is opposed to it.

According to sources the Prime Minister’s office got in touch with an emissary of Badal in Chandigarh who came to the capital Friday. The Prime Minister reportedly met this emissary on Saturday. But what transpired between the two was not known.

In fact the Prime Minister had invited the Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Thursday and possibly discussed the boundary and water disputes. Since a package on Punjab will have repercussions in Haryana the Prime Minister wanted to update himself before making any move in this direction.

Although the Union Home Minister S.B.Chavan had said that the Center was not considering any package and any such thing would be done only in consultation with an elected government in Punjab there are indications that the Center was worried over the boycott threat by the Akalis. So far Surjit Singh Barnala former Chief Minister and Capt. Amarinder Singh another prominent Akali Dal (L) leader and others have declared to participate in the pol. But the Center is keen on Parkash Singh Badal participating in the elections.

 The Akalis have been insisting that the Congress (I) government at the Center must show sincerity on the implementation of the Rajiv Longowal accord. They pleaded that there should be no dispute on the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab. However the question of the transfer of some of the Hindi speaking areas of Punjab to Haryana be referred to another commission The Haryana Government should be given money for the construction of a new capital.

Similarly the river waters dispute should be referred to the Supreme Court along with the award of the Eradi Tribunal. It is pointed out that the Centers inability to take action against the police officials who failed to prevent the massacre of innocent Sikhs during the November 1984 riots in the capital was hindrance to the Akali participation.

The Akalis say that none of the clauses of the Rajiv Longowal accord had been implemented and the chapter was closed with the dismissal of the Barnala Government in 1987. Therefore the Akai would have no reason to participate in the democratic process unless the Center reflected its seriousness to resolve the problem. Not only the Akalis but leaders of the Punjab Congress (D the CPI the CPM and other parties have also been making the same plea to the Center. In fact eight senior leaders of Punjab including Dr. G. S Dhillon Dr. Kewal Krishan RL Bhatia Beant Singh.

Swaran Singh Kamal Chaudhry S.P. Mittal Brar and others had met the Prime Minister some time ago. Most of them pleaded that elections should not be held and even if these were 10 beheld a package was necessary.

However the Prime Minister made known his determination to them on holding elections in Punjab and made no assurance on a package. He reportedly opined that the Center was willing to talk to anybody but this process could be initiated with an elected government.

In the Union Home Ministry is visible now which suddenly dug out old files about the “guilty” police officials of the November 1984 riots. The 37 officials had been found prime facie guilty by Kusure Lata Mittal a member of the Kapur Mittal committee which was set up by the Delhi admin is failure The Central Bureau of Investigation was sounded on proceeding against Sajjan Kumar a Congress (I) MP for his alleged involvement in the November 1984 riots.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 24, 1992