AMRITSAR: VP Singh said that the clouds of war were once again hovering over the borders with Pakistan and assured the people that any threat would be faced determinedly. Addressing a big all party tally here to pay homage to hundreds of innocent men, women and children who fell to British Gen Dyer’s bullets on this day in 1919 in the pre independent India, the prime minister said that according to intelligence reports there were instruction’s to militants from across the border to communalize the situation both in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir
Singh said that it appeared that his prayers for peace in Punjab during his last visit to the Golden Temple and Durgiana Temple had not been accepted yet. “What is my fault’? He asked in a touching voice.
Prime Minister then narrated a number of states his government had taken for normalizing the situation. He said the constitutional amendment which even took away the right to life was scrapped, army deserters were released and many of them rehabilitated, special courts set up to try the persons involved in the 1984 Delhi riots and cases of innocent persons languishing in jails were reviewed and later many of them Released.
Referring to the extension of. President’s rule in Punjab, he said that there was no other way because of the prevailing situation in the state. He said bullet and ballot could not go together. He appealed to all to help in creating an atmosphere in which elections could be held in Punjab. “We ourselves do not want to have president’s Tule in the state even for a day more than it is required,” Singh said.
He announced a monthly pension of Rs 1000 to the widows of victims of violence in Punjab on the Delhi pattern and increase in compensation from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 to the affected families.
V.P Singh said that he was advised against coming here today as there were reports of plans to throw a bomb at the rally venue from roof tops.
Unprecedented security measures were taken in the city and at many places it looked as if curfew was in force. Unlike his previous visit to the city on December 7 1989, soon after becoming the prime minister when he drove in an open jeep from the Golden Temple, this time the prime minister drove from the airport to the Jallianwala Bagh to pay homage to martyrs and then to the rally venue in a bullet proof car accompanied by scores of security men.
Singh added that Pakistani’s army and air force were on red alert along the entire cease fire line that divides the Himalayan state of Kashmir, where a crackdown by India on an Islamic secessionist movement has heightened tensions between the two nations in recent months.
Kashmiri militants who accuse Hindu dominated India of reneging on agreements that give the region broad autonomy attacked an Indian police convoy with grenades Saturday killing several adding to a toll of 325 lives claimed by the conflict since the first of the year. The leader of a powerful fundamentalist Hindu party warned Sunday that Moslem Pakistan would “‘cease to exist” if it began a war with India.
L.K Advani head of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a key member of the governing left right coalition told a crowd in Bombay that Pakistani interference in Kashmir should be recognized as “undeclared war by Pakistan,” the United News of India news agency reported. Advani urged the central government to send a “‘strong signal” to Islamabad. Indian police sources, speaking on condition of anonymity reported no causalities in at least five clashes Sunday in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 20, 1990
