JALANDHAR: The Sikh Students Federation (Mehta) on Sunday accorded recognition 10 the Akali Dal (Mann) for its Proximity with militant ideology Duta the same disapproved of its decision to persuade former chief minister Surjit Singh Batala to join the anti-election Panthic groups in Punjab.
Announcing this at a press conference here, the federation senior vice president Sukbir Singh Khalsa said the federation would react strongly to the inclusion of Barnala in the ranks of those who had decided to boycott the elections.
He said the federation, which is a parties to the boycott decision taken by four Akali factions and AISSF (Manjit) at Ludhiana on Friday will not review the boycott decision even if the central government announced a package for Punjab.
He asked how the Sikhs could be satisfied with package when even special status to Kashmiris under Article 370 failed to meet their aspirations. He reiterated that the federation stood on ts demand for an independent Sikh state and was in favor of forgoing unity on this issue alone. The federation suggested formation of a Khalsa council which should chalk out a joint strategy and a program to achieve the objective of the ongoing struggle in Punjab.
Sukbir Singh said the boycott decision has created new awareness among the Sikhs and exposed the government’s moves. It has also exposed the enemies of the Panth and Punjab, he added. The federation was of the view that the boycott decision will serve the larger interests of Sikhs and help improve their political position.
In a separate press note circulated by him at the conference, the federation posed eight questions to Barnala asking him if he was not taking in the same old terms despite having seen the fate of the Rajiv Longowal accord.
The press note accused Barnala of having ordered the entry of security forces into the Darbar Sahib at the instance of the center. alleged that they only paid lip service and talked of Sikh youth lodged in jail to be released while actually they had a hand in J.F. Ribeiro’s appointment as police chief and his killings of reputed Sikh youths like Manbir Singh Chaheru, Rdhan Singh Bairagi, Tarsem Singh Kohar, Gurmej Singh Geja, Ranjit Singh Baba and Dalbir Singh Billa who were all wiped out in faked encounters,
The crux of allegations against Barnala was that he was again busy harming Sikh interest to please the center. Finally, he did not resign when the then PM refused to hand over Chandigarh to Punjab on January 26.1986.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1992
