CHANDIGARH: The five members Panthic Committee after lying low for a few weeks has reasserted its authority in Punjab and has taken several initiatives to make its presence felt effectively.
The committee has succeeded in ensuring a near complete compliance of its instructions to the Punjab administration to conduct its business in Punjabi in terms of the Punjab Official Language Act and not in English as at present. The committee said after December 10 its volunteers would conduct “raids” to satisfy themselves with the progress of the switchover to Punjabi which, i insist, must assume a place of primacy. The committee at the same time clarified that it was not opposed to any other language and had respect for all languages but was resentful of the manner which the administration following in the footsteps of a Colonia administration had completely ignored the mother tongue of the people of Punjab.
The committee also desired Thai all signboards of central government organisations in Punjab should be in Punjabi. Railway stations, banks, insurance companies etc. should have their signboards written in Punjabi. Buses of the Punjab Roadways and other State undertakings should also use Punjabi to indicate their destinations.
The Panthic Committee said that senior officers of Punjab should correspond with Delhi and other States in Punjabi with an English version of their letters attached for the convenience of the non-Punjab officers.
The Panthic Committee desired that Punjabi newspapers should have not less than 90% share of Punjab Government’s advertisements budget. Punjabi teachers in schools and colleges should be given special allowances to encourage Punjabi teaching.
Most departments of Punjab started implementing the committee’s instructions in right earnest. The secretaries and other senior officers now conduct noting in Punjabi rather than in English. The Punjab Public Relations Department has started issuing Press notes in Punjabi along with English. The Punjab Language Secretary organised a seminar on how to introduce Punjabi at all levels of administration where Principals of schools and colleges also participated.
Earlier, the Panthic Committee had issued a code of conduct for the Press which, among other things, was required to describe those engaged in the Punjab struggle as “freedom fighters, Mujahideen or militants” and not as “terrorists, alleged terrorists or by any other description”. Almost all newspapers have started following this part of the code.
Observers, however, feel that the upper caste controlled Press could not for long oblige the Panthic Committee. Sections of it will either close down or ask the government to impose censorship rather than digest the poison.
Not long ago the committee had instructed the Punjab Government not to dig up the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal to take away Punjab’s water to Haryana to render nearly one third of Punjab barren. Then its instructions were neglected, the volunteers of the committee gunned down two senior engineers at Chandigarh as well as the political architect of the S.Y.L. canal, the former Finance Minister Balwant Singh. No other senior engineer came forward to take up the job. ‘The present Chief Engineer is reportedly not in favor of the S.Y.L. construction but surprisingly wants Haryana to carry water through the Bhakra Mainline canal. Also rather quietly a few bridges across the S.Y.L have been completed and thrown open to traffic.
What is noteworthy is that while the committee has undertaken a series of initiatives to be in step with the immediate aspirations of the people, it has no way to consolidate its gains. Its reliance solely on arms for the implementation of the programmes so badly required to be enforced lack or appear to lack popular sanction and participation. Such an arrangement cannot possibly produce enduring results. For instance, it will require only a few days for Delhi to start the S.Y.L. canal. The only hitch appears to be that Delhi is looking for a set of Akali leaders to give respectability to the canal inauguration.
Thus the biggest weakness of the Panthic Committee is its failure to build a fairly responsive over gournd movement to carry out vital tasks such as asserting State’s complete and uncompromising rights to river waters, the introduction of Punjabi and the steps to ensure that organs of State such as judiciary, Press and Parliament behave more responsibly towards Punjab and its problems.
While Simranjit Singh Mann sought to fill the gap, the committee did not provide him with sufficient guidelines on important policy matters with the result that Mann’s activities became erratic and self-willed. He started behaving like a traditional Akali in respect of many issues. He could not project the kirpans issue as an issue of his party, much less an issue of the Sikh Panth. Finally he meekly resigned his Lok Sabha seat on the issue without succeeding in effectively projecting the issue. All other members of his party remain as M.P.s. They do not know whether to resign or not.
Mann had announced in the wake of Panthic Committee’s initiative on S.Y.L. Canal issue that its demolition would claim his party’s next priority after he had completed a tour of the State. Instead of redeeming his pledge, Mann started mixing up freely with those who had supported the S.Y.L construction through the Rajiv Longowal accord. Eventually, he veered round to holding the so called unity conclaves with the old Akalis with no clear programme in mind.
The exit of Gurcharan Singh Tohra as President of S.G.P.C. is the culmination of the so called “unity moves” of Mann. To facilitate the unity, the Central Government arrested all senior Akalis and put them together in Chandigarh jail last week so that the unity moves could be successful which is sufficiently indicative of the utility of unity to Sikhs. Any unity which is achieved through the good offices of Delhi in the eyes of common Sikhs is suspect.
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God” Benjamin Franklin.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 7, 1990
