ISSRU (LUDHIANA): The Shiromani Akali Dal, led by Parkash Singh Badal, suffered a jolt last week ‘when supporters of Simranjit Singh Mann broke away and announced the formation of new Akali Dal with Mann as president.

The political conference of this faction, held at Issru village, 57 kms from Ludhiana, endorsed this decision with a show of hands in the Presence of Mann.

The announcement came even as the leaders of the rival faction, at their Conference a short distance away, emphasized the need to carry Mann along and appealed) to him to join hands with them by agreeing to their policy and program. Leaders of some other organizations were also present on the stage of the Mann Dal and lent their support to him. They included the former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Jasbir Singh Rode, the human rights champions D,S. Gill and Justice Ajit Singh Bains, Amarjit Singh Chawla, general secretary of the Sikh Students Federation, Inderjit Singh Jaijec, former MLA, Gurtej Singh and Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon. ‘The Mann leaders dubbed Badal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president, Gurcharan ‘Singh Tohra, as traitors to the panth and charged them with being deserters of the Akal Takht for their abandoning the Amritsar Declaration. They gave a call to the people to boycott them and their associates.

Mann took a pledge to work for attaining independence for the Sikhs ‘and appealed to the people to vote his party to power during the next elections to get their rights, secure river waters for Punjab.

He said his party stood for decentralization of power to the states in order to ensure remunerative prices of farm produce to farmers and take care of the interests of various sections of the society. He promised all around development of the state to bring it at par with western nations if his party ruled for five years. The Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhoval) president, Ajmer Singh Lakhoval, Observed that the Congress had decidedly become strong in Punjab, He called the Akalis to increase their ‘mass contact to counter this. He also appealed to them to beware: of the Congress agents among them who always torpedoed theirunity. He said that anybody who opposed Badal during next elections would be benefitting the Congress: Gurdev Singh Badal, Amrik Singh Aliwal, Jagdish Singh Garcha, Jasdev Singh Talwandi, Charanjit Singh Walia, Herinder Singh Norway were among those who spoke at this stage. The CPI, the CPM, the Congress and the BSP also organized separate conferences on the occasion.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 25, 1995