Chandigarh/ Punjab (April 13, 2013) As per media reports a meeting of the Core Committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal described as the recent verdict of Supreme Court of India, upholding the death sentence of Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar as “deeply painful, unfortunate and worrying”.
As per a detailed news report published by Babushahi.Com Harcharan Bains, Advisor on National Affairs to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that CM Badal and party president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal will meet Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde and urge them “to operationalise the post-judicial mechanism of statesmanship in order to avoid even at this stage any steps that may pose a threat to peace and communal harmony in the country in general and Punjab in particular.”
They would also separately request the President Mr. Pranabh Mukerjee in this regard, according to Mr. Bains.
In a resolution, the SAD Core Committee also appealed to “all peace loving citizens of the country and eminent public figures to work towards a solution to the issue in a manner that strengthens emotional bonds among different segments and communities of the people in the country and to pre-empt any decision based only on litigatory technicalities or stubborn-ness.”
The Core Committee also observed that the SC judgment should not be carried out on grounds of health of Professor Bhullar.
“Rushing to carry out the judgment in defiance of this basic humanitarian and legal consideration would send a wrong signal to the people,” said the Resolution.
According to Harcharan Bains the meeting was of the view that hanging an accused conspirator when the main accused had been acquitted in the case would set new and undesirable precedent in the country.
“It is also very significant that the presiding judge of the Bench of the Supreme Court that decided the case had acquitted Professor Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and given a strong dissenting note in the case”.
“All this calls for a statesman-like approach to this sensitive issue in the overall interest of peace and communal harmony in the country. Nothing should be done that may endanger the hard earned atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in the country in general and Punjab in particular, and harm the over-all long term national interests. The SAD and the Sikh community at large have made unparalleled sacrifices to protect and preserve these interests and values and to safeguard the unity and integrity of the country,” the Core Committee Resolution said.
The SAD is firmly of the opinion that decisions on issues having a bearing on peace and communal harmony should be taken with extreme and utmost care to ensure that these are values are not brought under a question mark because of a feeling of alienation and discrimination in any section or class of society, said the Chief Minister’s Advisor on National Affairs.
The Core Committee observed that the decision “is bound to invite parallels with the failure of the Delhi and Union governments to ensure exemplary punishments to those guilty of cold-blooded massacre of thousands of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country in 1984. Killers in fact are not only roaming free but have even by rewarded with plum political posts. Against this back-ground, the rejection of petition in Professor Bhullar’s case will strengthen the perception among the Sikh masses that two separate sets of laws operated in the country and that they have been subjected to discriminatory treatment even in the courts of justice.”
Apart from the Punjab CM Sardar Parkash Singh Badal and the SAD president and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, the meeting was attended by party Secretary General Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, General Secretaries Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal,party secretary and spokesperson Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, senior leaders Jathedar Tota Singh, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia.