We Salute Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann and his Akali Dal(A) workers for their successful resistance to the BJP's Tiranga Yatra all over the Punjab
The disarray and defeatism in the BJP is the begining of the end
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - True to his September 20 public warning that his party would go all out to stop the BJP's Uma Bharti flag march (Tiranga-Yatra) motoring through Indian occupied Punjab, Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann, (President, Shiromani Akali Dal - Amritsar), and thousands of his party workers, put up an excellent show of popular roadside resistance for two days (24th and 25th September, 2004) along the route of the Yatra motorcade.Earlier, on Sept. 11, 2004, Mr Birinder Singh Mann and Mr Gursewak Singh Jawaharke, presidents of Bathinda and Mansa district units of the Akali Dal (A), had in a press note announced that their workers would gherao Ms Uma Bharti, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, when she entered Punjab during her "Tiranga" yatra. We in the Sikh diaspora, who have been closely watching, salute Mr. Mann & Company for an outstanding patriotic deed successfully executed.
The piece de resistance of the Mann Akali Dal anti/Yatra operation in the Punjab was witnessed at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on September 25. There the collected BJP leadership, (including former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) were made to look ridiculous during the final programme, when scores of brave Sikh women (volunteers of the Akali Dal - A), suddenly sprang up from among the audience of BJP workers, and waived black flags and raised 'Khalistan Zindabad' and other slogans. Slogans not heard in Punjab in any public gathering since the 1980's. The Mann Akali Dal women volunteer's sudden and daring surprise, on September 25, unnerved the usually cool, disciplined and jingoistic, leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Punjab allies- Badal & Son Inc. Like cowards the BJP men tried to attack the protesting Sikh women but were thwarted by timely action of the Punjab police.
India's most prestigious English language newspaper, THE HINDU, carried four different stories on the September 25 events in Amritsar, related to the BJP Tiranga Yatra in its issue of September 26, 2004. In one story, headlined, 'Uma greeted with black flags', HINDU's correspondent, Sarabjit Pandher, (http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004092604850500.htm&date=2004/09/26/&prd=th&) wrote, "If their pungent remarks were any indicator, the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and their ally in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal faction led by Parkash Singh Badal, were visibly unnerved at the success of activists of another Akali faction of former MP, Simranjit Singh Mann, and the Rashtriaya Janata Dal (RJD) who managed to show black flags to the Uma Bharti-led `Tiranga Yatra' which culminated in Amritsar today. The appeal by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who sought to ignore the black flag demonstrations, did not seem to get a good response."
Correspondent Sarabjit Pandher goes on to report, in the same HINDU article, that, "Addressing a rally on the occasion, Ms Bharti in her fiery style held the Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, and the State police chief responsible for the demonstrations. There was some commotion created when a group of women got up and waved black flags and shouted slogans against her as Ms Bharti started to speak. Earlier, the protestors gheraoed her vehicle as the procession entered the walled city through the historic Hall Gate. The visibly agitated 'sadhvi', who had been presented with a sword by Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, said that those who indulged in waving black flags had insulted the National Flag, which could not be exonerated under the statutory 'right to freedom of _expression' as argued by Capt. Amarinder Singh. She also appealed to Mr. Badal that when an Akali-BJP government returned to power in the state, Capt. Amrinder Singh be tried for corruption." Ms. Bharti's childish outburst reminds one of a truism from the Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384--322 B.C.) about frustration, written more than two thousand years ago, that, 'Not to get what you have set your heart on is almost as getting nothing at all.'
Uma Bharti concluded her 16-day 3,500 kilometers 'Tiranga Yatra' in Amritsar on September 25, having started at Hubli, in Karnataka, on September 10, 2004 with great fanfare. Ms. Uma Bharti, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief minister, (who fits the description of the crude Punjabi _expression, 'gundi wrun pardhan'- English translation - 'female thug turned political leader') had wrapped herself in the Indian national flag for the Tiranga Yatra like the proverbial scoundrel described by the famous English essayist and poet, Dr. Sanuel Johnson (1709-1784) who wrote that, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
The Uma Bharati-led Hubli-Jalianwala Bagh Tiranga Yatra, was part of a planned political revival plan of the Sangh Parivar which was cooked up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership in the last week of August and early September 2004. The leadership of the Hindutva combine sensed a great opportunity, for a political revival, and embarked under an intensive plan and action mode. Different segments of the combine launched initiatives on several fronts covering a broad spectrum of political and ideological issues. The instruments used ranged from mass campaigns like the Uma Bharati-led Hubli-Jalianwala Bagh Tiranga Yatra; the `Andaman Satyagraha' led by Sushma Swaraj; the anti-price rise protest marches in all districts headquarters; the conclave of Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States; the call at the Chief Minister's conclave to formulate alternative anti-terrorist laws if the Central government repeals the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA); and public debates on issues such as the alleged steep rise (Census 2001) in the minority Muslim population in the country. (See Khalistan Calling, for background, which highlights the Census 2001 FRAUD with the Sikh and Muslim minorities. (/home/khalistancalling/2004/september15.aspx) An extremist Hindutva element was also thrown in in the form of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) agitation and threats aimed at demolishing the tomb of Afzal Khan, a 17th century Muslim general, at Pratapgadh in Satara district of Maharashtra.
So vast was the array of topics and campaign formats unleashed by the combine that the Sangh Parivar believed that the BJP had finally struck upon a comprehensive opposition game plan against the weak and vulnerable United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Sonia appointed Manmohan Singh government. But, hardly a month into the phase - the Mann Akali Dal's agitation against the Bharti-led Tiranga Yatra and lack of public response - have shaken the confidence of the BJP and its associates who now no longer seem to share the earlier positive conviction. Media reports speak of the disillusionment of many thugish BJP leaders with the current game plan and some of them have made a volte-face on the issues. The divided BJP leaders again seem to be giving the impression to observors that they are acting as if they have been mentally defeated by their surprise election defeat earlier in the year.
History will record that Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann, and his valiant party workers, administered the coup de grace to the ambitions of this thugish bunch of Neo-Nazi, Hindu-fundamentalist BJP fascists in India. This is very good news for India's captive and beleaguered monotheistic minorities like the Sikhs, Christians and Muslims.