CHANDIGARH: Policy makers in Delhi are keenly awaiting the Punjab and Haryana High Court Judgement on the question of revival of the 1985 Punjab Assembly dissolved two years later.
In the meantime, the government leaders appear to be whiling away time talking of holding an all-party meeting later this week to discuss Punjab or conducting a foot march in Punjab to “bring about peace”.
Prime Minister VP Singh and some of his ministers who were in Punjab at the weekend made conciliatory statements as compared to the former’s belligerent and provocative Red Fort announcement of August 15 stating that while people would be won over by love, the militants would be won over by force of arms.
The Prime Minister addressed a public rally amidst heavy security at Lopoke, village near the IndoPak border on Sunday where he said the solution to the Punjab problem lay with the people in Punjab and not in Delhi. Obvious implication of the statement is that the Centre is in no mood to end what Mann calls its colonial exploitation of Punjab.
Meanwhile all eyes are focused on the high court currently hearing several writ petitions for and against the revival of the Assembly. J.V. Gupta, a former R.S\S. activist, heads the bench.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 24, 1990
