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.
