NEW DELHI: Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Jan I asked prime minister Chandra Shekhar not to start negotiations with Akali leader S   Mann, on the basis of his memorandum demanding the right of self-determination for the people of Punjab.

If the government surrendered before the secessionist forces and started negotiations with the militants, then it will weaken the nationalist and patriotic forces pledged to the unity and integrity of the country. This will be a fatal step, a BJP statement said.

A BJP delegation, led by its president, Mr L K Advani which met Mr Chandra Shekhar, however, said that the party was not against a peaceful settlement of the Punjab tangle but stressed that the issue raised by the Akali leader would cause dismemberment of the country.

Besides Mr Advani, the delegation included the party general secretary, Mr K L Sharma, the ail India secretary, Dr Vijay Kumar Malhotra and the Delhi unit president, Mr Madan Lal Khurana.

The delegation told prime minister that Mr Mann had no control on the militants. If the militants were under the control of Mr Mann, he should then ask them to stop killings of the innocent and the unknown people in Punjab. Only then an atmosphere conductive to talks will be generated. Claiming that the Hindu population in Punjab was against any self-determination for the people in the border state, the delegation said that a large number of Sikhs were also against the demand of Mann.

Nothing that Mann and his party were not the only representative body of the people of Punjab  the delegation demanded that the minority Hindu community should also be included in the negotiations held for solving the Punjab problem.

Meanwhile, four Congress-I leaders from Punjab Tuesday welcomed as a bold initiative the talks held by prime minister Chandra Shekhar with the Akali Dal leaders to resolve the Punjab problem and said he should be completely given a free hand at the first stage of discussions.

In a statement, they said the initiative was encouraging since both the sides have made it clear that the solution would be found within the parameters of the constitution.

They said was heartening to note that all sides wanted a peaceful settlement and to bring back normalcy in the state The leaders also accused some political parties and individuals, who had little or no stake in Punjab, of unnecessarily trying to block negotiations to see a premature end to the talks.

The leaders included Mr H S Hans pal and Mrs Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, both MPs.

AMRITSAR: Constitutional provision of self-determination, being mentioned by Mann, is no longer valid, as such thoughts had occurred at the time of Indian independence when hundreds of royal states were having sovereign status, according to vice-president of BJP vice-president Dr Baldev Prakash,

All these states had subsequently merged with the Indian union”, and now Mann “should know that the independence and sovereignty of India is not qualified or conditional”, Dr Prakash said in a statement here Jan 4.

The BJP leader said his party was not adverse to a negotiated settlement of the Punjab problem but this should not be at the cost of national integrity.

Commenting on the memorandum submitted by Mann recently, Dr Parkash said Mann envisaged a long drawn struggle to achieve his aim of self-determination on communal basis,

But he should rest assured that the people of India are equally determined to safeguard the integrity of the nation.

Dr Parkash said Mann had interpreted article 51 of the constitution for right of self-determination of Sikhs, This, the BJP leader, said was purely meant for international peace and security.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 11, 1991