NEW DELHI: Rajiv Gandhi said that a “reluctant” Kashmir government was “pressed by” the Centre to release five “terrorists” involved in “heinous” crimes to secure the release of the daughter of the federal home minister.

Addressing a meeting of the Congress (I) party in Parliament, Gandhi charged that center had “backed down” in the face of separatists which Indira Gandhi never did.

He said the militants, whose release was demanded, were involved in several murders and therefore, the state government ‘was not willing to release them.

Gandhi said his party never supported any such thing nor it ‘would have compromised with the national self-respect.

Gandhi was also critical of the govt for resiling from its earlier stand on “Khalistan and Anandpur Sahib resolution.”

He said the this party had raised the issue of “Khalistan” and Anandpur Sahib resolution at the all party meeting on northern state of Punjab and wanted to know the government’s stand.

He said BJP president L K Advani said that it was not necessary to discuss these issues because the former Punjab chief minister S. Barnala was present at the meeting, “It is a clear shift of the BJP” he said.

Gandhi said that V P Singh told the Punjab governor not to take any major action against the separatists. “No action has thus been taken against the protagonists of Khalistan and once more the door has been opened for secessionists”.

Stating that his government had brought Punjab very close to solution, Gandhi said his party could not give its support to the government “unless we know its attitude on Khalistan and secessionism.”

Gandhi said that his party would function as an ideal opposition in parliament.

It would extend support to the government “as long as they pursue our policies”, “if they deviate, we will have to be most critical of them. Anything anti-people we cannot sit and tolerate,” he said.

Gandhi repeated the charge that his party was not taken into confidence while preparing the “consensus paper” on Punjab. “Still we tried to cooperate,” he said while narrating the entire sequence of events before the all-party meet on Punjab.

 

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 29, 1989