CHANDIGARH: The former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president and senior Akali Dal (Badal) leader Gurcharan Singh Tohra is for the boycott of elections in Punjab whenever held.
Tohra feels that if at all the Alkalis have to enter the election arena; there should not be multiplicity of candidates as witnessed in the postponed election in the state. Tohra was virtually passive during the election campaign and had made it clear to his party that he was opposed to the Akali Dal (Badal) participating in the elections as the issues facing them were entirely different for which the elections were no solution. Even when the decision was taken to revive the party after dissociating with the Akali Dal (Mann) he had made it clear that he was not opposed to the revival of the party but favored the boycott of elections.
While Tohra talked about boycotting the elections from the party platforms, his successor in the SGPC, Baldev Singh Sibia gave the boycott call.
Tohra does not see any ray of hope under the given dispensation at the Center and envisages a different role for the Alkalis under the given situation. Mr Badal openly says that the democratic means have failed but is vague about the role for the party under such a situation. It is here that the two leaders differ.
The former SGPC chiefs in favor of the Alkalis launching a peaceful struggle against the state repression. ‘Talking to this reporter here, he said leaders of all the factions should sit together to discuss the situation and the line to be adopted. Almost all the Akali factions have been talking of the state repression but no concrete steps have been taken to counter it.
Tohra says even if the Akali factions were in favor of maintaining their separate identities, they should at least set up a joint command on the issue of state repression. Unity is possible only on this point. While Mr Tohra was passive during the campaign, he has been active taking up the case of the state repression, particularly in Patiala and Ropar districts of late.
While talking to the panthic unity, he is not averse to talking the militants into confidence and favors coordination with them.
Without defining the ultimate purpose of this coordination, Tohra says there should be one line. For him, any reference to the Punjab accord amounts to flogging the dead horse.
The Panthic Committee (Sohan Singh) and the Babbar Khalsa have already announced their decision to boycott the poll. The Akali Dal (Mann) president, Simranjit Singh Mann is personally in favor of the poll boycott and he made it clear at the party meeting at Amritsar on June 16. His recent letter to the Governor is also being seen as an attempt to wriggle out of the elections. How far Tohra, who has always been instrumental in influencing the party decisions are successful, would be clear in the next few days.
Cuts in subsidies for in budget 92 The maiden budget of the Narasimha
Rao govt to be presented to the parliament on Wednesday is expected to make a determined bid to restore fiscal discipline to the budgetary process. a ntae A beginning is also likely to be made in the reduction of present high rate of custom duties to bring them more in line with international standards, Although the thrust of the exercise to raise resources will be on broadening the base of direct taxes and simplification and rationalization of the indirect taxes, the finance minister Manmohan Singh is unlikely to resist the temptation of realizing some revenues from luxuries and consumer durables, including domestic gadgets.
A determined effort is also likely to be launched to curb wasteful governmental expenditure. to reduce the burden of subsidies.
Efforts to restore fiscal discipline to the budgetary exercise have acquired an urgency of late with the budgetary deficit for 1990-91 touching a whopping Rs.114,30 billion as against an original estimate of Rs,72.06 b,
Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991
