SAD leaders on Wednesday took strong exception to the “preposterous” statement of Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh that creation of Punjab Suba was the ‘second partition’ for Punjabis which eventually laid the foundation of continuous decline of the State.
“Capt Amarinder should clearly understand that foundation of continuous decline was laid by none other than the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,” said senior SAD leaders party’s secretary general and former union minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, party MP Prem Singh Chandumajra and Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsas in a joint statement.
“If this was a perception of Congress that creation of new state led to a truncated Punjab, why not a single Congress leader then had stood up to Gandhi to oppose it,” they asked.
“Show us a single statement from Punjab Congress that opposed Indira Gandhi on this account,” the trio asked adding that shockingly Capt Amarinder awakened from his deep slumber after 50 years and took cudgels to oppose when SAD was having “golden jubilee” celebration of the historic event.
The trio said that the SAD had consistently articulated the aspiration of Punjabi speaking people for a separate state as all other states had been reorganized on linguistic basis.
Certainly then, it was Gandhi at the helm of affair who conceded the demand albeit in most deceitful manner by grossly ignoring the claims of the Punjab over its river waters, its share in resources and depriving the nascent state of its legitimate Punjabi seeking area.
“If anybody is to be blamed for deprivation of Punjab, it is precisely Indira Gandhi who systematically deferred the transfer of Punjabi speaking areas including Chandigarh to Punjab under a larger conspiracy,” they said.
Hitting out at Capt Amarinder for describing as “second partition”, SAD leaders said that 1947 and 1966 can’t be compared.