AAP rift widens, Kejriwal refuses to meet Khaira : The Tribune India

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Referendum row

AAP rift widens, Kejriwal refuses to meet Khaira

NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday faced the ire of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his alleged support to ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’, a Sikh radicals’ campaign to ‘liberate Punjab’.



Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 20

Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday faced the ire of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his alleged support to ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’, a Sikh radicals’ campaign to ‘liberate Punjab’. The latter refused to meet him, it is learnt.

Beleaguered Khaira then met Manish Sisodia, in-charge of Punjab affairs, who too rebuked him and asked him to come out clean on his act. Lashing out at Khaira, Sisodia said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had nothing to do with his referendum thoughts. Khaira has been asked to explain his stand in writing through the Punjab unit president of the party. Last week, Khaira had reportedly said: “I support the ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ as Sikhs have the right to demand justice against atrocities suffered by them.”

Political parties in Punjab, including the Congress and the BJP, are demanding sacking of Khaira while cornering the AAP on the issue.

Khaira, along with eight other MLAs — Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Pirmal Singh, Nazar Singh, Jai Kishan Singh, Baldev Singh, Manjit Singh, Bibi Baljinder Kaur and Sarabjit Kaur, met Sisodia at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. Talking to The Tribune at Punjab Bhawan here, Khaira said he did not support the referendum.

“All states in the country were demarcated on the basis of language. But it was not done in case of Punjab. In 1966, Punjab was restructured. It was truncated Punjab. I also speak against the attack on Darbar Sahib in Amritsar in 1984, injustice meted out to riot victims and blacklisted Sikhs living abroad.”

If speaking against all this is anti-national, what should one term the act of burning a copy of the Constitution by former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in April 1982. He, along with the then Akali leader, Simranjit Singh Mann, had handed over a memorandum to former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros– Ghali, demanding an autonomous Sikh state.”

“In an interview to the BBC in 1984, Badal had also appealed to Sikh soldiers to move to Amritsar, leaving the barracks,” Khaira said.

He said, “Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had also signed the Amritsar declaration and the right to self-determination for Sikhs.”

He said, “The issue of referendum was raised against me by rival political parties as I have given a strong opposition in Punjab. I have opposed wrong policies of the government. The Congress, BJP and the Akali leaders hate me.”

NRI units back Khaira

Chandigarh: The NRI units of the party have rallied behind Khaira on the Sikh referendum issue. Leaders of 36 units of the NRIs wrote an open letter to Punjab political affairs incharge Manish Sisodia, saying Khaira had supported the Sikh struggle for justice while insisting he abided by the Constitution of India. The NRIs have demanded that Dr Balbir Singh be barred from issuing media statements. They also cited the party’s Shahpur bypoll defeat as reason for sacking him. Dr Balbir Singh said it was for the party to decide on such issues. 

He was misunderstood: Sandhu

Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu on Wednesday said he stood firmly behind Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Khaira, who neither supported the demand for “Referendum 2020” nor uttered anything against the unity of the country. In a statement, he cautioned those issuing statements to the media without checking facts. “When it comes to the interests of people of Punjab, we will not hesitate to call a spade a spade,” he said. “It is this hypocrisy by some people within the party that cost us dear in the Assembly elections. That will not happen again,” Sandhu said.

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