AMRITSAR: Former Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Ba Gal urged V P Singh to shift Punjab governor Siddhartha Shankar Ray from the state and hold early elections to the state assembly.
Prakash Singh Badal and Gurch aran Singh Tohra were released on Saturday.
The general secretary of AISSF, Harminder Singh Sandhu and a senior leader, Ujagar Singh She khwan have also been freed.
Both Tohra and Badal had been arrested for their protest against the Operation Black Thunder in the golden temple complex. While Tohra was let off from the Nidam pur guest house in Sangrur district, Badal was released from the Dehra Dun jail.
After paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine, and Akal Takht, Badal alleged that “there was rule of the jungle” in Punjab and urged the new central government not to allow the governor to stay in Punjab “even a day more”.
Badal said excesses committed during president’s rule in Punjab had even surpassed the excesses during the emergency, imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1976, and de manded a high level enquiry into it,
The governor, Badal alleged, had been branding him and other detained leaders as “antinational”, and “secessionists”.
Badal described Simranjeet Singh Mann as “our candidate” when asked to comment over his victory from Tarn Taran.
He said his party’s foremost task would be to watch the panthic as well as Punjab’s interest.
Badal said there was nothing to be happy over his release when hundreds of Sikh youths were still “rotting in jails” in Punjab and outside. “Morally the government should have released me before the elections”, he said.
Badal said nothing was going to be solved unless the Akalis forge unity. “We will give all support to whosoever would take initiative for solving the Punjab problem. We don’t want to take credit for it we are interested that wounds should be healed”, He added.
The Akali leader said he was in favor of early polls to Punjab assembly in order to bring popular government.
Meanwhile, communist’s party member Harkishan Singh Surjeet said in Delhi that the continuation of Ray as governor would be harmful for the state and the country.
Accusing the Governor of not protecting the state, but acting asa Congress(1) agent, Surjeet said the situation in Punjab was serious and required immediate steps to evolve a national consensus to solve it.
Welcoming V P Singh’s mention of Punjab in his national broadcast, surjeet said Punjab had proved the failure of Rajiv Gandhi government.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 8, 1989
