GIDDERBAHA: The Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh, last week, a longed that the President of the Akali Dal, Parkash Singh Badal, and Simranjit Singh Mann had supplied arms to late Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, during their respective tenures as chief minister and SSP.
Speaking at an election meeting at Sotha village near here, Beant Singh said that Badal and Mann had created an atmosphere suitable for the spread of militancy in the state. He said that destructive policies of the Akali Dal leadership had faced militancy in Punjab, He appealed to the voters of the Gidderbaha constituency (o vole for isolating communal forces and strengthening the secular parties.
He said that the Akali Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party had always propagated and practiced communalism and castism for their narrow ends. He questioned politics of marches of the Akalis, as gimmicks of the Akalis to exploit religious sentiments of the people.
He said that the Akalis had always failed to provide a viable and responsive government in the state.
Beant Singh said the Congress had always remained wedded to the values and principles aiming at the welfare of common masses.
Lashing out at Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Beant Singh, said he had always played the role of an opportunist.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 19, 1995
