As referendum remark kicks up storm, Khaira tries to backpedal
CHANDIGARH :A day after his controversial remarks over support to Referendum 2020 — a pro-Khalistan movement initiated by US-based advocacy group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) — kicked up a political storm, senior AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Saturday tried to wriggle out by saying that he never backed the demand for a separate Sikh state.
As the leader of opposition in Punjab assembly came under heavy fire from political outfits, including his own party, the AAP, Khaira said: “I don’t support the idea of Khalistan but I don’t hesitate to say that this demand is result of consistent policy of bias, discrimination and persecution that have pushed Sikhs to this point that they want a separate state for themselves.”
The Congress and the SADBJP, however, lashed out at Khaira for his “open and blatant support” to the referendum campaign. Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the AAP leader was “backing secessionism” by supporting the campaign. Amarinder said Khaira seemed to be indulging in political antics without any sense of the history of Punjab or any realisation of the possible consequences of his statement.
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Khaira is backing secessionism... He is indulging in political antics and not realising the consequences of his statement.
CAPT AMARINDER SINGH, Punjab chief minister
AAP’s Punjab co-president, Dr Balbir Singh, who is looking after the organisational affairs after the resignation of state president and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Maan, announced that national leadership of the party will initiate action against Khaira.
“AAP’s national and Punjab leadership stands for unity and territorial integrity of India. We don’t support any referendum. I have consulted the high command on the issue and they have told me that action will be taken against Khaira for his statement,” Balbir told HT.
SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia termed Khaira’s statement a “proof of divisive politics played by AAP.”
“A criminal case should be registered against Khaira for indulging in anti- national activities. Khaira is doing a great injustice to the Sikh community by talking about referendum 2020 and justice for 1984 victims in the same breath,” he added. On Friday, Khaira had said: “I support the Sikh referendum
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AAP stands for unity and territorial integrity of India. We don’t support any referendum. The high command will take action against Khaira .
DR BALBIR SINGH,
AAP Punjab co-president
2020 movement as Sikhs have the right to demand justice against atrocities suffered by them.”
Punjab Police, who has nabbed more than 20 persons in last one year for conspiring to popularise this referendum, claimed that this referendum is backed by the ISIwith US-based lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannu as its “mastermind”. In July last year, police had booked Pannu on charges of sedition over the pro-Khalistan campaign.
I don’t support the idea of Khalistan but I don’t hesitate to say that this demand is result of consistent policy of bias against Sikhs.
SUKHPAL KHAIRA, AAP MLA and leader of opposition in assembly
Khaira is not an ordinary AAP worker; he is leader of opposition. If Khaira’s stand is not the party’s stand, I ask Kejriwal to sack him, or declare that you are with Khalistanis! SUKHBIR SINGH BADAL, SAD president and former deputy CM I urge the CM and Union govt to direct police to examine Khaira’s statement and register a case. If AAP leaders do not support his stance, they should demand his removal SUNIL JAKHAR, state Congress president and Gurdaspur MP
CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party MLA and leader of opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s statement in favour of a ‘Referendum 2020’ propagated by Sikh radicals, who seek a separate nation of Khalistan, has not only put his party in an awkward position but has given ammunition to people within and outside the AAP against him.
The apparent reaction of AAP leadership — Khaira has since had to step back in the matter — underlines that the party has not forgotten the disappointment of 2017 when it squandered a groundswell due to its purported cosiness with the radicals. “Khaira should not forget how AAP’s chances in the assembly polls ended effectively after the episode of Delhi chief minister and party boss Arvind Kejriwal’s stay at the house of a former militant in Moga days before the voting,” said a party MP who did not want to be named. Another senior leader, who too preferred to stay unnamed, said the party’s chances were dashed when the opposition’s propaganda to project AAP as “close to Khalistani forces” gained traction. This, the leader said, created an impression among the Hindu community that the AAP was hobnobbing with Khalistani elements settled abroad.
AAP could win only 20 of the 117 seats in 2017 as the Congress formed the government with 77, while the incumbent SAD and BJP were reduced to the third spot. However, even after being the principal opposition party, AAP is in crisis in Punjab due to various organisational and leadership issues, “and Khaira’s such statements will only add to our miseries,” the MP said.
Dr Balbir Singh, co-president of the party’s state unit, said, “The national leadership will initiate action against Khaira for this statement.” Party MLA Aman Arora, who also remained its state co-president and is a prominent Hindu face in Punjab AAP, uploaded a video on social media to state that Khaira’s statement is “his personal thinking” and “this is not the party stand”. Khaira later sought to underline his support to India’s unity.
But chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh termed Khaira’s support statement “unfortunate”, and added that the leader of opposition “seemed to be indulging in his usual political antics and theatrics, without any sense of the history of Punjab or any realisation of the possible consequences of his statement or act”.
‘KEJRIWAL MUST ACT’
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “Sukhpal Khaira is not an ordinary AAP worker; he is leader of opposition. If Khaira’s stand is not the party’s stand, I ask Kejriwal to sack him, or declare that you are with the Khalistanis!”
BJP’s senior leader Manoranjan Kalia said, “Can Khaira explain what he means by ‘referendum’ ? Declaring support to the demand establishes that Khaira has links with secessionists.”
Political observers feel Khaira’s statement was a move to win or retain confidence of hardliners who are politically and economically influential in various foreign countries. “By making this statement, Khaira may be eyeing huge funding for himself or the party, as Khalistan is an emotional issue for the Sikh diaspora settled in Canada, US and Europe,” said another senior AAP leader from the state.
Many in the party consider the support a “self-goal” by Khaira, who already has a volatile relationship with the party’s national high command after he criticised Kejriwal’s apology in a defamation case filed by former SAD minister Bikram Singh Majithia. Several MLAs are not in favour of his continuance as leader of opposition, and this will further fan the fire, said an AAP MLA.
Khaira, in a press release hours after the “support” statement went viral, said that those at the helm of affairs should know that “it was due to great sacrifices made by Sikhs and Punjabis that India won its freedom”.
“Although the British had offered Sikhs a separate and sovereign country, yet they opted to be part of the Indian state,” he added, and further said that. “it is also a matter of record, that the Sikhs were the worst sufferers of Partition”.
He sought to hit back at the SAD leaders, who termed him anti-national, and said they should “introspect (on) the role of their patron Parkash Singh Badal”, who “was not only signatory to the original Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1972 but also burnt copies of the Constitution of India before Parliament in 1983”. He said Badal was also part of a delegation that met the UN secretary general at Delhi in 1992 to demand “right to self-determination for Sikhs”.