Friday 30 March 2012

Times of India - "Rajoana had protested killings during 1991 polls"



Rajoana had protested killings during 1991 polls
I P Singh, TNN | Mar 30, 2012, 05.16AM IST

JALANDHAR: Balwant Singh Rajoana was against several acts of militant organizations, including killing of over two dozen candidates in the 1991 assembly elections, this comes out from letters written by him.

The election was countermanded by then chief election commissioner T N Seshan just 24 hours before the polling. The Congress had boycotted the election process.

In a letter to his sister Kamaldeep Kaur on September 6, 2009, Rajoana implied that some of the militant outfits and their leaders were working at the behest of Central government agencies and their actions ultimately went against Sikhs.

He wrote that when the Akali Dal dared to contest the 1991 election after expressing faith in the Constitution, the panthic committee, a conglomerate of various militant organizations, ordered its boycott. "Instead of contesting the elections, Akali leaders were got eliminated so that the Congress win could be ensured and Sikhs could be rendered leaderless by eliminating Sikh and Akali leaders", he wrote.

Rajoana had also criticized killings of innocent in Punjab during militancy days and held "agencies" behind some militant outfits responsible for it. "The agitation (launched by SAD and Sikhs) was for very genuine demands of Sikhs but then it became victim of lowly mechanizations of Delhi. Due to attack on religion --Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh riots in Delhi -- the Sikh organizations were compelled to demand independence as their psyche was badly injured," he wrote.

"Initially, the sangharash (struggle) was not communal and Hindus and members of other communities did not have any fear of these youths but then agencies infiltrated, formed panthic committees and misled the militants and struggle," Rajoana said adding, "several actions were executed which would have created opposition to the struggle and incurred a bad name for it."

Rajoana criticized Shingar blast
In his letter on April 22, 2008, Rajoana had written then he had no doubt that the movement for Khalistan was being "controlled by the Congress and agencies." "Their job is to keep the name of this path alive but none should be allowed to progress on it. That is why Shingar cinema blast took place. I think that happenings like Shingar cinema have nothing to do with the Sikh struggle," he added.

Rajoana for sarv dharam
"I think that if sangharash has to be taken forward, we have to win the confidence of people of other religions and communities. All of them should feel secure in our ideology and should honour it. Our ideology should be of sarv dharam (accommodative to all religions), justice and human progress and should not be confined to gurdwaras," Rajoana said in his letter written around two-and-a-half years ago.