Chandigarh, August 5
Breakaway Akali leaders today announced the formation of a Panthic Morcha, headed by Baba Sarbjot Singh Bedi of the Gurmat Sidhant Parcharak Sant Samaj.

It is a conglomeration of certain Akali factions, including the Sarb Hind the Shiromani Akali Dal of Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) of Mr Simranjit Singh Mann and the Panthic Dal of Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode. The mocha has the support of a former Jathedar of Akal Takht, Bhai Ranjit Singh, and a former Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Mr Ravi Inder Singh. All were present at the press conference where the formation of the new outfit was announced. Mr Kuldip Singh Wadala’s outfit has not yet joined the new morcha.

An 11-member committee to run the affairs of the morcha will be announced later at Amritsar, while a conference under the banner of the new morcha is scheduled to be held at Fatehgarh Sahib tomorrow.

Baba Sarbjot Singh said the morcha would adopt an "open-door’’ policy. All those who wished to "defeat’’ the Congress and the SAD-BJP combine were welcome to join it. The morcha was not a parallel party to the SAD, headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal. It was a body that aimed at protecting and preserving the Sikh traditions and tenets and working under the guidance and leadership of Akal Takht. The formation of the morcha was necessitated because "our own people’’ had discarded the very constitution under which SAD was formed in 1920 and over a period of time had forgotten the spirit of the Moga convention. "It is ironical that rather than religion dominating politics it is the other way round, thanks to the leadership of Mr Badal’’, he added.

Mr Tohra said the morcha would articulate the aspirations of all Punjabis wanting a "true’’ panthic party adhering to the principles of the original SAD that had been given a go-by by Mr Badal.

Enunciating the objective of the morcha, he said it would give a "clean, corruption-free and transparent administration’’. The morcha would maintain "equidistance’’ from both the Congress and the SAD-BJP. The two were responsible for the spread of corruption, unemployment and poverty, had denigrated Akal Takht showing disrespect and disregard to its Jathedar, given up panthic thought and worked against Sikh traditions. Despite respect and support given to Mr Badal all these decades, he had betrayed the Panth, he added.

The morcha would work for the restoration of panthic sentiments and thoughts and lay stress on “Punjabi Ekta’’ in the true spirit of the Moga conference resolution where the SAD was projected as a “Punjabi party’’. “We believe in strengthening Punjabiat’’, Mr Tohra added.

Baba Sarbjot Singh said he had accepted the “convenership’’ of the morcha till Baisakhi 2002. The political goal of the morcha, he continued, was no different from that of the SAD, though the latter had forgotten and given it up. The morcha would launch an enrolment drive and eventually have “one nishan, one savidhan, one pradhan’’. The endeavour would be to recreate the “original’’ Akali Dal of 1920. It was unfortunate that the wrong leadership had diluted its philosophy and objectives, he remarked.

Answering questions, Mr Tohra said the morcha did not recognise Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti as the Jathedar of Akal Takht. The “real’’ Jathedar was Bhai Ranjit Singh.

On the possibility of Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan and Wassan Singh Zaffarwal joining the morcha or being tried for their past acts, the leaders, including Bhai Ranjit Singh, said this question should be addressed to the ruling Akali party leaders who had manoeuvred their return and destroyed the past record of Zaffarwal. Or it would be more appropriate if the question was put to the high court since it had permitted the return of Dr Chohan. “The two have no place in our morcha’’.