Sonia puts off Punjab visit fifth time
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Oct 8 — The fifth postponement of the visit of Ms Sonia Gandhi, President, Indian National Congress, to the holy city in less than 11 days has baffled the Congress leadership here.

The visit of Ms Sonia Gandhi assumed significance as she was the first member of the Gandhi family who expressed her earnest desire to pay obeisance at Golden Temple and Akal Takht after "Operation Bluestar".

Ms Gandhi had earlier proposed to visit Amritsar on September 27 which was later postponed to October 4. However, the proposed visit of Ms Gandhi was again put off to October 7 due to some "unavoidable" circumstances. The proposed visit of October 7 coincided with the Gurpurb of Guru Ram Dass, founder of Amritsar. In view of the "risk" due to the great rush of devotees, the visit was postponed once again. The new date for her proposed visit was fixed as October 9 which was again put off to October 10. However, at the 11th hour when the Punjab police and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee were awfully busy making arrangements, her visit was again postponed without assigning any reason.

Ms Sonia Gandhi was also scheduled to hold a meeting of the Jallianwala Bagh Trust being its chairperson, apart from paying obeisance at Durgiana Mandir.

Dr Raj Kumar, General Secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, while talking TNS has said that Ms Sonia Gandhi postponed her visit to Amritsar due to elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, MP and Mizoram, scheduled to be held on November 25. He said Ms Gandhi was likely to visit Amritsar after the elections in the above states.

It may be mentioned here that Capt Amarinder Singh, President, Punjab Pradesh Congress, had earlier said Ms Gandhi would visit a number of districts in Punjab after paying obeisance at Golden Temple, Akal Takht and Durgiana Mandir. However, due to security risk, Ms Gandhi was reportedly advised not to come by train and visit various parts of the state by road. The rescheduled visit of Ms Gandhi was planned in such a way that she should not be exposed herself to any security risk. She was now scheduled to visit Amritsar by air and had dropped the idea of visiting other parts of the state by road.