PATIALA: The president of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee, Mr. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, has welcomed the offer of Mr, Simaranjit Singh Mann to have seat adjustment with the rival Akali Dal in the elections.

He has also appealed to Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, president Akal| Dal (Badal) to respond positively to Mr. Mann’s offer of having one to one Candidate in the elections to Parliament, to defeat the Congress.

Otherwise, Mr. Tohra felt the result would rove 10 be a disaster for the Akali Dals and a profit for the Congress. Mr, Tohra, while addressing a big political gathering outside the ‘gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib here on occasion of Basant Panchami, said that except for one or two seats, the Akali Dal (Badal) would contest all other Parliament seats, without any alliance with other political parties.

However, he left enough scope for having some sort of political understanding at the national level by extending Support to them outside Punjab, in response to accepting their Support in Punjab, Mr. Tohira said that the Akalis have their votes varying from 10,000 to one lakh in about parliamentary seats, for which they were ready to have electoral adjustment OF seat to seat alliance for mutual benefit.

 He said that the Akalis will not have any alliance with Congress but regarding its understanding with BJP, the decision would be taken only after the political picture at the national Jevel was clear.

Mr. Tohra demanded the resignation of Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao as ‘well as of Mr. Bufa Singh for their involvement in the havela scandal, Charging that Mr. Rao had received Rs three crore through havela reference, Mr. Tohra said that Mr. Rao should fall in line with his three Cabinet colleagues and resign from the post of the Prime Minister immediately.

 Mr, Tohra alleged that the officials of the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) had shown favors while investigating the havela scandal.

While addressing the Akali Dal (Mann) political conference, Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann said that he feared that he would be liquidated by Mr. Tohra and Mr. Badal.

Mr. Mann said that Akali Dal would from its next government in Punjab; He claimed that if they came to power he would fix the price of wheat at Rs 740 a quintal.

Mr. Mann urged the Sikh masses to Seen to vote him to power because he had been, fighting against police repression besides taking up cases of human nights. He had also filed petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the late Chie! Minister. Beant Singh for his grandson’s involvement in the Katia molestation case.

Baba Santa Singh, Chief Baba Buddha Nihang Dal, while addressing a big gathering at Chauhani Nihang here, urged the Sikh youth to give up the path of militancy and join the main stream to Service the cause of humanity, He also urged the youth to shun antinational activities, The youth should follow the spirit of Sikh religion which preached no bias i any religion, said Baba Santa singh.

Baba Santa Singh honored Mr. Gurbhajan Singh Saki, president, Patiala press club with a sword and a shawl Other journalists honored on the occasion included Mr. Ashok Verma, Punjab Kesri, Mr. Udhay Singh, Nihang Sandesh and Kamal Sachar. A press photographer. The Shire many Youth Akali Dal (SYAD), led by Mr. Kuldip Singh Kahton, also welcomed the statement of Mr, Mann, in which he had offered to negotiate for fielding candidates with clean image in the next Lok Sabha elections. Ina press statement issued here last week, Mr. peer Sin| reed secretary to party sia it factions of Akali Dal should join hands to defeat the Con, ogres index aee He said that the youth wing of the party at a meeting had endorsed the statement of Mr. Mann and also appealed to Akali leaders to avoid entices of each other The statement issued on behalf of Mr. Kahlon said that Sikh “qualm” (community) would never forgive the Akali leaders if they didn’t rise to the occasion, The Youth Akali Dal also demanded a judicial probe into the allegations made by Mr. Mann that money paid to Ca and BJP leaders by hawala aee Mr. S.K. Jain, was sent from Pakistan and China. The youth Akali Dal also expressed concern over the Supreme Court ruling, that “Hindutva™ was not an objectionable turn and doesn’t sound an alarm for minority communities.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 31, 1996