(NAKODAR JALANDHAR) Akali Dal (Badal) President Parkash Singh Badal described the postponement of May 26 Assembly by-election in Ajnala as “murder of democracy.” Late breaking news revealed that the elections would probably be held at the end of August.
He said his party never lodged the complaint that led to the postponement which, he added, his party never wanted. He alleged that ruling Congress used its influence to get the election postponed to save its face in Ajnala where its candidate was going to be defeated. He said there was great resentment among the electorate over the postponement. Asked if he apprehended similar fate in Nakodar, Badal said nothing could be said as the Congress government could not be trusted.
Party Senior Vice President and candidate in Nakodar Kuldip Singh Wadala said postponement was “mockery of democracy.” But he alleged that this only went to prove his party charge that free and fair elections were not possible in Punjab under the Beant Singh’s. regime. He claimed that Lok Sabha by-election in Jalandhar, last year was also rigged and the general elections in February, 1992 which brought the minority government of Beant Singh to power were also not free and fair in view of the Akali’s boycott. Wadala said people were getting disillusioned, with high-handed methods of the Beant Singh government, whom he charged with undermining the entire democratic process in Punjab by grossly misusing the official machinery. Meanwhile, Badal described Chief Minister Beant Singh’s charge of his complicity in the murder of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal as “irresponsible and born out of frustration.”
Badal said the Beant Singh government was launched on a two poem program of “looting” the people of Punjab and indulging in baseless tirade against him as he clearly visualized that the Akali Dal (Badal) was emerging as alternative to his “corrupt government.
Commenting on SGPC chief G.S.Tohra offer not to become a member of united Akali party and contest for the office of SGPC president in case he joined it, Badal said, Tohra could not be trusted He said Tohra had gone back on his solemn pledge at the Takht Kesgarh Sahib that he would never become the SGPC president. Commenting on the Akali Dal (Amritsar), conference at Sunam recently, Badal said the party was guided by one-point program of opposing him. He said if Akali Dal (Amritsar) was genuinely against the Congress, it should work for the defeat of the Congress in Punjab by-election.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1994
