NEW DELHI: The former Speaker of the Lok Sabha Mr Balram Jakhar has suggested to the Prime Minister Mr Chandra Shekhar to finalize without further delay a plan of action for Punjab to save the country which is on the brink of division.
Mr Jakhar who is an AICC (I) General Secretary and a prominent Congress (I) leader of Punjab Said in an interview to a local daily that the government in drawing up the plan must be absolutely clear in its mind about the objectives the immediate tasks and the strategic and tactical steps.
Mr Jakhar said he had been informed that militants had taken the unprecedented step of issuing Khalistan currency notes. If this report is true then the government had fallen one more step behind in its attempt to control the situation.
On the law and order situation Mr Jakhar said militants had gained the upper hand in 1990. The number of hardcore militants had gone up considerably. Their arsenals had been augmented substantially All the three regions of Punjab were now affected with 44 police stations being the worst affected.
Mr Jakhar said he had brought to the notice of the Prime Minister that the Panthic Committee headed by Dr Sohan Singh was now operating with impunity. None of the members of the committee had been apprehended and it had not been possible to stop their usurpation of authority.
Mr Jakhar has also told Mr Chandra Shekhar in a letter that militants had once again revived their so-called social reform movement and had extended its sweep to include a code of conduct for the Press and a dress for students particularly women. There was a revival of the demand to declare three cities as sacred and to ban the sale of tobacco liquor and meat in these cities depredation was Continuing in the rural areas and had now entered cities including Chandigarh.
Militants want was now being directed against the state government. The use of Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script had been taken as the issue of browbeat the administration.
Mr Jakhar expressed the view that in the absence of a plan there seemed to be a lot of avoidable confusion on matters of command control following the deployment of the Army extensively in the border districts to strengthen law and order
Article extracted from this publication >> February 8, 1991
