Mr. Badal Challenged!
Washington, D.C., Monday, May 04, 1998 - Now that the Hindu fundamentalist BJP rulers, the current temporary occupiers of the Delhi Takht, have shown how much they care for the "health" of the Punjabi farmer (by announcing a Rs. 510 per quintal procurement price for wheat when the central government is importing Australian wheat at Rs. 632 a quintal and it costs the farmer over Rs. 600 crore to produce Australian wheat at Rs. 632 a quintal when it costs the farmer over Rs. 600 to produce a quintal) it maybe worth reminding the Indian occupied Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal of the other dividends of an Akali BJP alliance he used to boast about nine weeks ago, before the Indian general elections, because of which his Akali Party was allowed to win a majority by the Sikh electorate of the Punjab.Lest his fatherly desire to safeguard a junior ministry in the fascist BJP government in Delhi for his boy, Badal Junior, push Mr. Badal senior into betraying the Punjabi electorate over other vital Punjab issues, a la the procurement price of wheat, it maybe worthwhile to provide steel for his spine by reminding the pliable Sikh Chief Minister of the promises, and claims, he made prior to the March general elections.
Mr. Badal, his henchmen and his "BJP superiors" in Delhi, should never forget that the Sikhs of the diaspora, like the Jewish diaspora and unlike other diaspora nationalities, and some wealthy "Half-Sikhs" in India, are emotionally focused on their homeland--Khalistan. Every true GurSikh, male or female, has a "fire of patriotism in his or her belly" which is expressed daily, very loudly, and very defiantly in every Sikh gathering every where with the words; "RAJ KAREGA KHALSA." This declaration of intent incidentally, is also repeated daily in every Gurudwara Sahib the world over, including the Gurudwaras in the Indian Army cantonments and Indian Police Lines. Mr Badal and Pundit Vajpayee, please note that it is not easy to fool or subjugate such a people!
Nearly two months have elapsed since the Badal Akali Dal decided to: "extend unconditional support to the Bharatiya Janta Party in its effort to form a government in the center", and four months have passed since Mr. Badal trumpeted his promises and the dividends that will accrue to the Punjab, and its people, from an alliance with the Hindu Fundamentalist BJP, at that time predicted to win the March 98 Indian elections. The dividends and promises were as follows:
a)A BJP central government would help with Rs 550 crores to complete the Ranjit Sagar hydel project on the Ravi River. b)A BJP government would assist with Rs. 248 crores for the Chandigarh Ludhiana rail line via Morinda. c)A BJP central government would help negotiate a World Bank project worth Rs. 500 crores to upgrade medical educational facilities in the Punjab. d)A BJP central government would provide financial and technical help to install STD telephone facilities and a petrol pump in every village, as well as Bridges over the Ravi and Beas rivers in the Gurdaspur district. e)A BJP central government would help restart the closed Punjab National Fertilizer plant at Nangal. f)A BJP central government would help setup a software technology park, a National Institute for Renewable Energy and an Earth Station in the Punjab. g)A BJP central government would help setup a State Farms Corporation at Laddowal near Ludhiana and start four-laning of the Chandigarh-Ropar -Kiratpur Sahib, Jalandhar - Amritsar, Jalandhar- Pathankot and Chandigarh - Ambala National Highways. h)A BJP central government would settle the Sutlej water disputes with Haryana and Rajsthan on the basis of the Riparian principle. i)A BJP government would provide technical and financial help to the South-Western districts of the Punjab, where water- logging and soil salinity have caused wanton destruction, accentuated since the construction of the Indira Gandhi(Rajasthan) and Sirhind feeder canals which siphon the water of the Sutlej river to the two non-riparian Hindu-Majority states of Rajasthan and Haryana free of cost. j)A BJP central government would ensure that Cotton Corporation would buy more, at a higher price, from the South - western Punjab cotton farmers whose lands have suffered due to water-logging from the Indira Gandhi and Sirhind canals. k)A BJP central government, allied with the ruling coalitions in the wheat - producing states of Haryana and Rajasthan, would raise the procurement price of wheat the cost of which, taking into account the inputs, has been estimated by the Hindu- majority state of Haryana, to be between Rs. 600 and Rs. 650 per quintal. l)The Badal Akali Dal party if it wins the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab promised (and this was reported in THE TRIBUNE, Chandigarh of January 10, 1998) to; "go in for earth filling of the excavated SYL (Sutlej- Yumna Link canal) in the Punjab." If the BJP government of Pundit Vajpayee has rejected the reasonable Badal proposal of raising the wheat procurement price to Rs. 610 and instead announced, in early April 98, a price of a paltry Rs. 510 per quintal, is there any Sikh in Indian Occupied Punjab, or in the diaspora, who can honestly say that anti-Sikh Hindu fundamentalist, Swastika worshipping Vajpayee government in Delhi will deliver on ANY of the above mentioned eleven "dividends" that Mr. Badal hoped to earn for the Sikhs of the Punjab as a result of his alliance with the Nazi Brahmins of the BJP?
We hope Mr. Badal junior will advise his papa, Mr. Badal senior, to at least keep the pre-election promise (spelled out in para l above) which he made to his Sikh compatriots about filling up the abandoned SYL canal as he does need financial, or other help, from his BJP "Seniors" in Delhi for this act of patriotism which is long overdue. He should announce a Kar Sewa. HOW ABOUT IT MR. BADAL?