CHANDIGARH: The local units of the BJP and the Samajwadi Janata Party on Dec.7 flayed the Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh, for his statement that Chandigarh was part of Punjab and “will soon be transferred to that state.
Describing the statement as “most unfortunate and deplorable,” Gian Chand Gupta president of the BJP unit, said the Chief Minister was crying wolf by making such statements.
He also flayed the local M.P. Pawan Kumar Bansal, for not rebutting the statement Bansal had the parliamentary election on the slogan that Chandigarh would always remain a “union territory,” remarked Gupta and hastened to add: “Now a senior Congress leader was misleading the people of Chandigarh by quoting the Prime Minister.”
He called upon Bansal to clarify his statement on the status of Chandigarh. If he does not do so, he should immediately resign.
In their joint statement Anile Khosla, Subhash Kataria and Ashok Kaushik, said Beant Singh should keep his hands off Chandigarh. “The people of Chandigarh have repeatedly expressed their opinion that they wish to remain residents of the union territory for all times to come,”
These leaders said that people of the city would not tolerate any such decision and would fight it tooth and nail. They called upon Bansal and Venod Shanna, president of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress, to clarify their stand on this issue.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 17, 1993
