PATIALA: “We are united and there are no differences between us On any politics and other issues,” Gurcharan Singh Tohra, SGPC President, and Parkash Singh Badal, Akali Da (Badal) President, claimed while addressing a Press conference at Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran on Sept.7
Tohra and Badal said the reports regarding differences between them were baseless. They appealed to media persons not to publish such reports without verifying facts from the persons concerned.
Asked about the participation in the Sant Longowal Shaheedi Conference in Sangrur district, Tohra said he had gone there to present the views of the Akali Dal (Badal) on the Rajiv Longowal accord.
He had openly said at the conference that the accord was a “dead document” and was not acceptable to the Akali Dal (Badal).
Asked whether he would take part in an Akali conference to be organized at the Chapar Fair in Ludhiana district by the Akali Dal (Barnala), Tohra said he would participate, if leaders of the Akali Dal (Mann) and the Akali Dal (Badal) took part in the conference.
Talking about Akali unity, Badal said his party would welcome the entry of leaders of other factions of the Akali Dal into its fold. He said those Akali leaders who wanted to join his party would be given due respect and status.
Badal and Tohra were here to present a memorandum to the PSEB chairman on the “deplorable” power supply to the rural areas. Badal and Tohra demanded that both the agriculture and industrial sectors should be given power supply round the clock They alleged that because of inadequate power supply, the development of the state on industrial and agriculture fronts had been affected.
Badal and Tohra said the Center was not giving Punjab its due from the national power grid while it was overdrawing from the Bhakra hydroelectric projects. They demanded that the contract of the BBMB and other head works should be handed over to Punjab and discrimination on the power front with Punjab should end.
After addressing the press conference, Tohra and Badal left for Delhi to meet Rajesh Pilot, Minister of State for Internal Security, to lodge a protest against the alleged “inhuman” treatment to Bhai Ranjit Singh, Jathedar of Akal Takht, who had been convicted in the Nirankari Baba Murder case.
Tohra and Badal said they would urge Pilot to treat Bhai Ranjit Singh as per his religious status. Tohra as per his religious status. Tohra said earlier the jail authorities were allowing him to have home cooked food and he was free to meet his relations in a separate room. But now all such “facilities” had been withdrawn and he was being treated shabbily. Tohra said it was an “insult” to the Sikh community which would not be tolerated.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 10, 1993
