Tohra man suspended
Badal camp gets tough
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 13 — The ongoing tussle between the Badal camp and the Tohra faction went a step ahead today as Col Jasmer Singh Bala (retd), a close confidant of SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, was today suspended from the Shiromani Akali Dal for his alleged anti-party activities. Col Bala was a member of the working committee of the SAD.

Informed party sources said the decision to suspend Colonel Bala from membership was taken this morning at the residence of party chief Parkash Singh Badal, following a brief meeting.

Colonel Bala has also been issued a show cause notice by the party Secretary-General, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, to explain his statement criticising the functioning of the SAD-BJP Government and challenging Badal's leadership.

He has been given a week's time to submit his reply of the show cause notice to the party leadership.

Colonel Bala was among the first lot of leaders to welcome Mr Tohra's controversial statement through which the SGPC chief has suggested Mr Badal to quit the SAD leadership and hand over it to Mr Gurdev Singh Badal. Colonel Bala had urged Mr Badal to accept the advice of Mr Tohra with regard to stepping down from the SAD leadership.

Meanwhile, more ministers have joined a war of statements against Mr Tohra. In a joint statement, three ministers — Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Mr Sikander Singh Maluka and Mr Ajit Singh Kohar — said Mr Tohra's outburst against Mr Badal and his government was a crude attempt to stab the party and the Panth in the back.

The three ministers said the task of managing Sikh holy shrines should be handed over to "those having a genuine commitment to religious ideals and a clean and unassailable reputation and integrity. People holding religious offices must be above petty ambitions and greed for political hegemony".

They pointed out that the SAD, whose nominees now control the supreme religious body of the Sikhs, could not shy away from its responsibility of ensuring a clean and efficient management of Sikh shrines. Efforts had to be made at the highest level to keep those who indulge in political intrigue and conspiracies away from gurdwaras. They urged Mr Badal to take all necessary steps at the organisational level, apart from helping start a social awareness movement in the community.

The target of these ministers in the statement was Mr Tohra.

They stated that Mr Tohra’s statement about the party chief and SAD-BJP Government’s performance was aimed directly at diluting the tremendous religious zeal and enthusiasm generated by the tercentenary celebration of the birth of Khalsa.

The ministers said the entire Panth and the state had been intrigued over reports appearing in a section of the press which said that Mr Tohra had held a long meeting with a former senior Congress leader who had been excommunicated from the Panth because of his role in Operation Bluestar. They said it was significant that Mr Tohra’s rantings against the Punjab Government and Mr Badal followed the reported meeting.

Badal for action against errant workers

JALANDHAR, Dec13 (PTI) — Punjab Chief Minister and president of the Akali Dal Parkash Singh Badal today said disciplinary action was a logical consequence if anyone aired views against the party or its government outside party fora or in the media.

"Such action should be taken... must be taken’’, Mr Badal told PTI when asked whether disciplinary action should be initiated against anyone trying to weaken the party president or critising its government in the media.

Mr Badal, who held a long-stretched out meeting with Akali Dal workers from various constituencies of the district to hear their grievances, refused to answer specific queries about whether any action would be taken against SGPC president G.S. Tohra who publicly criticised the government functioning and asked Mr Badal to quit party presidentship.

When asked whether he would be issuing an appeal to Akali Dal leaders and workers to stop all statements being made for and against him and resolve the conflict between two top power centres within the party, the Chief Minister said, "let us first decide within the party what is to be done’’.

"I do not want to say anything more about this", he said while refusing to entertain any further queries.

Mr Badal who was accompanied by ministers Sewa Singh Sekhwan (Public Relations), Jagir Kaur (Tourism), Ajit Singh Kohar (Agriculture) and Sarwan Singh Phillaur (SC, BC, Welfare), listened to the complaints patiently but had to cut short the meeting midway saying his helicopter has to leave early due to foggy weather.

Mr Kohar, Phillaur and Jagir Kaur launched a broadside against Mr Tohra urging Mr Badal to "crush the efforts to weaken the party". "Tohra has stabbed Badal and the Akali Dal in the back and he must be slapped with a show-cause notice", Jagir Kaur told PTI.

"Tohra’s statement asking Mr Badal to quit from party presidentship is part of a larger design to weaken the Panthic forces and the Akali Dal", a joint statement issued by Kohar, Phillaur (both ministers), Sharfan Singh, Partap Singh, Gurdip Kaur, Ranjit Singh (all SGPC members), Gurdip Singh Bhullar, Mohan Lal (both MLAs) and Prof Inderjit Singh, president of district Akali Dal, said here.

Ms Jagir Kaur said Mr Tohra was made SGPC president only because Mr Badal asked party workers to back him.

"However, he has now chosen to be ungrateful. A single political leader has no locus standi to ask a representative of crores of people to resign", she said.

Tohra’s demand widely decried
Tribune Reporters and agencies

AMRITSAR, Dec 13 — Dr Manjit Singh Bhoma, president, All-India Sikh Students Federation, has strongly criticised Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, SGPC chief, for demanding the resignation of Mr Parkash Singh Badal as president of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Talking to the press, here today, Dr Bhoma said that recent salvo of Mr Tohra fired against Mr Badal was part of "deep-rooted conspiracy". He said that Mr Tohra himself wanted to become the Chief Minister of the state in place of Mr Badal. He accused Mr Tohra of destabilising the Barnala government earlier. He said that at one time, Mr Tohra kept Mr Badal out of power from the Barnala ministry and got adjusted "his own men" in the ministry. However, when Mr Barnala spoke against Mr Tohra, he hatched a conspiracy to topple his government. He also alleged that the "Sikh panth" should watch activities of Mr Tohra.

JALANDHAR: A number of Youth Akali Dal leaders today accused SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra of "stabbing" the Akali Dal in the back in pursuit of vested interests and urged Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, to secure his resignation from the premier gurdwara management body.

"Tohra has become president of the SGPC only due to the blessings of Badal but has now stooped to asking Badal to quit party presidentship". Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Baljit Singh Neelamahal and over a score of other senior YAD leaders told reporters here.

They said Mr Tohra was "in the habit of stabbing the Akali Dal in the back whenever the party launched any progressive venture like the tercentenary celebrations of Khalsa this year".

"Badal has made Tohra a hero from zero," the leaders said in a statement issued here, and held him responsible for what they called "increasing instances of Sikh masses, particularly youth violating Sikh tenets".

Urging Mr Badal to immediately seek Tohra’s resignation from the top SGPC office, the Youth Akali Dal leaders also demanded disciplinary action against all those trying to weaken the Akali Dal.

Terming the hard-line SGPC chief as "golak chor", the YAD leaders said Tohra had played the role of "Jai Chand" during "Operation Bluestar", but despite that Mr Badal had given him due respect.

"However, Tohra has proved an absolutely ungrateful person but now that the cat is out of the bag and deeper conspiracy was afoot, Mr Badal must assert himself and take action against such elements," the Youth Akali Dal leaders said.

HOSHIARPUR: In a joint press statement here today Mr Satwinder Singh, vice-president, National Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), Mr Varinder Singh Bajwa, district president SAD, Mr Avtar Singh Johal, district president, SAD, Youth Wing, Mr Raghuvir Singh Sobti general secretary, SAD and Mr Avtar Singh Kapur, Chairman, Agriculture Development Bank, strongly opposed the demand for the appointment of new president of the Shiromani Akali Dal in place of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister Punjab by Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra, president SGPC. They stated that Mr Parkash Singh Badal was a honest and hard working leader performing well as president SAD and Chief Minister of Punjab. The aforesaid demand of Jathedar Tohra was only to divide the SAD for his selfish motive. They alleged that the SAD had lost the byelection of Adampur only due to dishonest role of Mr Tohra. They further alleged that Mr Tohra also tried to sabotage the functions of tercentenary celebrations of Khalsa but he did not succeed. They appealed to Mr Parkash Singh Badal to continue as SAD president and Chief Minister of Punjab. They assured that all leaders and workers of the SAD Hoshiarpur district were with him.

In a separate statement Ms Mohinder Kaur MLA from Sham Chaurasi reposed her full faith in the leadership of Mr Parkash Singh Badal and criticised Jathedar Tohra for "irresponsible" statements.

JALALABAD: Akali leaders member of Parliament and SGPC member, Mr Jora Singh Mann, Mr Paramjit Singh, MLA and Mr Sher Singh, MLA (Jalalabad) in separate statements joining others today criticised Mr Tohra’s recent outburst to handover SAD presidentship to someone else.

Describing Mr Tohra’s statement as a part of conspiracy to destabilise the Badal government as well as to weaken party and "Panth" the leaders charged Mr Tohra with playing into the hands of the Congress. They said that Mr Tohra is jealous of popularity of Mr Badal and in the habit of destabilising the Akali governments whenever it came to power. Reposing faith in Mr Badal’s leadership the leaders said that the SAD is progressing in every spheres under the dynamic leadership of Mr Badal. They also warned Mr Tohra to desist from any "foul" play otherwise he would be "exposed".

The firing is on: Tohra
Tribune News Service

PATIALA, Dec 13 — While Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) President Gurcharan Singh Tohra today said "the firing is on", his close confidant and Lok Sabha member Prem Singh Chandumajra described recent utterances of Cabinet ministers decrying Mr Tohra's "suggestions" as unfortunate and said he would try to mediate to remove all misgivings.

Leaving Bhasha Bhavan here after addressing members of the Punjab Kala Sansthan, the SGPC chief said "the firing is on" but refused to answer any questions, saying he would break his silence after two days.

However, Lok Sabha Member Prem Singh Chandumajra said it was unfortunate that Senior Akali Dal Cabinet Ministers continued to criticise Mr Tohra's "suggestions", specially after the latter had issued a clarification. Mr Chandumajra said he and others would try to defuse the present situation by meeting Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Mr Chandumajra said the statements by senior Cabinet ministers were neither the party nor the state's interests instead they would give an opportunity to anti-Akali groups to take advantage of the situation.

The Akali leader said attempts being made in Akali circles to isolate the SGPC chief were unfortunate. "Nothing will come out of washing dirty linen in public", he said.

Speaking about the relationship between Mr Badal and Mr Tohra, the Akali leader said both leaders were united and no one could break this bond. However, their perception differed on the working of the government.

Mr Chandumajra said the statement given by the SGPC chief to a news agency at Jalandhar had been twisted out of context. Mr Tohra had not demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister from the post of the party president but suggested that he appoint a confidant like Mr Gurdev Singh Badal as acting party chief so that party affairs could be given more attention.

When asked whether the clarification by him had come too late, specially when the Badal camp had launched an offensive against the SGPC chief, Mr Chandumajra said Mr Tohra was of the view that there was no need for a further clarification.

Show cause notice illegal: Bala
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 13 — Reacting to his suspension from the membership of the SAD, Col Jasmer Singh Bala (retd) said here today that he had not violated any code and policy of the party by suggesting that Mr Parkash Singh Badal should make efforts to make the government and the party efficient.

He said that introspection was needed in view of the fact "that we lost in Adampur which was our stronghold.

"The government is facing difficulties on the financial front. It is earning a bad name to the party. So being a loyal soldier of the party, I suggested to Mr Badal to accept the advice of Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra on the appointment of a new party chief. The suggestion was well- intentioned and aimed at strengthening the party as well as the government," he added.

He further said that he would reply to the show cause notice as he had committed no crime.

He maintained that a major cause of worry for the party was the re-emergence of the Congress as a major force in the North in general and Punjab in particular after the recent assembly elections.

He said the notice was illegal because it had not been issued by the party chief.

It had been issued by Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, the Secretary-General of the party, who had no power to suspend a Working Committee member. Moreover, the letter was undated, he added.