WSN Service
CHANDIGARH: Akali Dal (M) chief Simranjit Singh Mann declared here that filling up the controversial SYL canal would be his priority once he was free from the Current protest march.
“We would call upon farmers to take back the land they gave to the government for the canal. We will give them spades and baskets to fill up the canal,” he told news men at the local press club.
Mann regretted Prime Minister’s stance at the Independence Day function and said none could browbeat Sikhs with the might of arms and VP Singh’s statement to that effect was unfortunate. The statement would inflame the Sikhs who would dare, endure and never accept defeat. Singh’s speech indicated he was following in the footsteps of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Mann said use of weapons against its own people by the government was contrary to international law. While Akali Dal was keen on settling the dispute through talks, it was not deterred by repression. Mann reiterated his party’s demand for self-determination under UN’s auspices to determine whether Sikhs wanted to live in India or not Dal (M) chief condemned the moves to revive the Punjab Assembly dissolved in 1987. It was a dead house which no longer represented the people. It was Delhi’s clever move to bypass elections to keep its colonial rule in Punjab for three more years, he said.
Mann dismissed criticism of his talks with US Ambassador William Clarke as treasonable and said “if communists could have hearts and heads in Moscow or Peking and Rajiv Gandhi could have a foreign wife, how could anyone find fault with my free and frank talks with the US representative?”
Article extracted from this publication >> August 24, 1990
