ROPAR: Mann Akali Dal chief Simranjit Singh Mann criticized leaders of Akali Dal (Badal) for going back on the Sikh demand for Khalistan. Referring to a recent statement by Badal group vice president Kuldip Singh Wadala that his group never demanded Khalistan and that it always advocated for changes in the Indian constitution to provide for safeguards for minorities, Mann said that Badal and Tohra had submitted a memorandum to the U.N. secretary-general Boutrous Ghali sometime ago clearly favoring Khalistan. But now leaders of the group were reneging on the issue to appease former prime ministers Chander Shekhar and V.P.Singh who are scheduled to come to Jalandhar to participate in the party’s proposed rally. Mann was addressing a meeting of about 250 sarpanches and panches of the area. ‘Mann said that neither Shekhar nor Singh during his tenure did anything for Sikhs or Punjab. The only gain from the rule of these leaders resulted to maintain leaders of the Badal group who got away with industrial permits worth several crore rupees. Mann appealed to the U.K. governments not to transfer militant Karamjit Singh to India because he faces the danger of cither being eliminated in a fake encounter or tortured.
The Indian government’s assurances had no meaning, Mann added, He said on one hand chief minister Beant Singh was talking of the restoration of peace in the State but on the other hand was extending the duration of the Disturbed Area Act for six more months.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 19, 1993
