AMRITSAR: Senior Akali leader Simranjeet Singh Mann asked Kashmiri militants to release the foreigners held hostage “without doing any harm to them.”
He cautioned Kashmiri militants that the abduction would tum the whole world against them if they (the foreigners) are not released honorably.” The Akali leader strongly reiterated his commitment to the Amritsar Declaration, which sought a separate homeland for Sikhs in India. Expressing anguish over the opposition of: ‘senior party leaders such as Parkash Singh Badal and Gureharan Singh Tohra to the declaration. Manntoldnewsmen in the district courts here last week that he would stick to his own stand.
The Amritsar Declaration was made a political aim of the Akali Dal when six different Akali factions merged in April last year. This was, however, later discarded on the I tense of the faction led by Badal, Though most of the other erstwhile factions agreed to the demand, Mann did not, saying that ‘as it was an announcement from the Akal Takht it was binding on all Sikhs.
Mann was not happy with the role of the acting head priest of Akal Takht Manjit Singh, saying that he himself made the announcement of the declaration and had not stood by it.
Mann was piqued with the functioning of the Akali Dal and wanted representation in the three member committee to decide the new setup of the party after Badal was made its president. “I want Sucha Singh Chattepur to be included,” he asserted. The Akali leader gave no importance to the recent victory of the Akalis in the recent elections of the Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee as the turn out in favor of the party was less than 45%, ‘This he said was because of the faulty system of choosing candidates, alleging that his candidates of his faction were ignored.
The Akali leader warned the party leadership of “serious consequences if they maintained links with parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”
Article extracted from this publication >> July 21, 1995
