Akali Dal Demands Explained : The Tribune India

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Punjab Assembly Elections — 1951-1952

Akali Dal Demands Explained

AMBALA: “The Akali Dal does not want any special treatment by way of concessions, weightage or reservation of seats, said S. Hukam Singh, M.P., President of the Shromani Akali Dal, addressing a largely attended public meeting in the Grain Market here last night."

Akali Dal Demands Explained


(From Our Own Correspondent) 

AMBALA, Dec. 24.

“The Akali Dal does not want any special treatment by way of concessions, weightage or reservation of seats, said S. Hukam Singh, M.P., President of the Shromani Akali Dal, addressing a largely attended public meeting in the Grain Market here last night.”

He added: "All that-it demands is equal right of citizenship for the Sikhs, protection of Punjabi as the mother tongue of the State, and of Punjabi culture, justice to backward classes, irrespective of whether they belonged to the Hindu or the Sikh community, and recruitment to services on merit alone”.

Describing the Hindu community as the elder brother of Sikhs, S. Hukam Singh complained that the latter had been given a step-motherly treatment by the Nehru Government and the Congress, with which Sikhs had fought with shoulder to shoulder in the country's battle for freedom.

He refuted the charge that the Punjab Akalis or Sikhs were communal and that they wanted further partition of the country, or that the policy of the Dal was similar to that of the Muslim League. 


Read more stories related to Punjab Assembly Elections — 1951-1952


S. Hukam Singh explained that the reason why they had been charged for not changing with the times was that their condition had not been allowed to change with the times. As soon as the Sikh began to feel that he had equal rights with others, his mentality would change.

 He challenged that there was no other organisation which had proved nationalist and patriots at any stage as the Akali Dal since its birth up to 1945, when it found that the Congress had decided to agree to the partition. It, therefore, resolved to fight elections independently of the Congress. Since then, he added, the Dal began to be considered as a separate entity, and was used as a tool against the Muslim League. 

The Sikhs, having boycotted the Constituent Assembly, were persuaded to join it on the assurances that full support would be given to their demands, but after they had joined it, they were told that they were a rolling stone. This, he said, was absolutely wrong. 

Remarking that Sikhs were the worst hit by partition, as admitted even by Sardar Patel, S. Hukam Singh charged that they were being denied equal rights of citizenship as provided in the constitution. He demanded the appointment of an officer to consider the complaints of Sikhs, and if it was found that their demands were unreasonable, he would withdraw all of them without hesitation. 

The speaker deplored that while only four castes had been offered benefit of the concessions provided for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Castes Order, of 1950, had provided that in the case of the other 30 castes recognised for the benefits, only Hindus were eligible. Pandit Nehru could not escape responsibility for this, as all such orders were passed at his instance. 

He asserted: "The Sikhs have always protected India, and stood for progressive forces. Even now if any enemy cast an evil eye on India, the Sikhs will lay their lives for preserving our hard-earned freedom. “Over 90 per cent of those who laid their lives in India's fight for freedom were Sikhs. They will be glad to do the same if an occasion arises. It is a duty which Sikhs will willingly discharge in the service of their motherland.”

S. Hukam Singh remarked that Punjabi was not a language of the Sikhs, it was the mother tongue of the entire Punjab State. Sikhs take pride and pleasure in learning Hindi, the national language, as they could not make any progress without that, but they wanted that Punjabi should be given a status which, for instance, Bengali enjoyed in Bengal. 

The Akali leader advocated the formation of a Punjabi speaking state consisting of the Punjab, PEPSU and Ganganagar, although in this formation, he said, the Sikhs stood to lose their majority in PFPSU, which meant a great sacrifice. As this would bring unity between Hindus and Sikhs, he said, the Sikhs as true nationalists were prepared to make that sacrifice in the broader interest of the country.

Pandit Nehru, said S. Hukam Singh, did not place reliance on Sikha, whom he treated like ‘traitors’. In spite of all sacrifices and services rendered by Sikhs in the cause of the country, if the elder brother (Hindus) held that attitude, it was misfortunate as it shook the faith of the younger brother in the elder brother

Reiterating that the Akalis did not want partition of the country, S. Hukant Singh said that the Sikhs were the victims of grave misunderstanding created by the press and otherwise, adding that their demands were neither against the principles of democracy nor those of secularism. 

The speaker advocated the levy of an independence tax to alleviate the miseries of refugees.

Akali Dal Politics Bewildering

-- Mr Nehru

HISSAR, Dec. 24. — Pt. Nehru, addressing a public meeting here yesterday, expressed the opinion that the politics of the Akali Dal had always been very strange. At one time the Akalis were with the Congress fighting against British domination. Sometimes they flirted with the British. Sometimes they compromised with the Muslim League. 

The Akali Dal had no principles and no politics. It had polluted Punjab politics. “If the Punjab politics had not been weak, India and the Punjab would never have been divided,” Pandit Nehru asserted. 

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