Bhindranwale a towering figure

ROOPNAGAR, Feb 8: Criticising Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for declining to attend the birth anniversary of late Jarnail Singh Bhin...

ROOPNAGAR, Feb 8: Criticising Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for declining to attend the birth anniversary of late Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Akali Dal Amritsar president Simranjit Singh Mann said that only those having courage to defy the Central authority would turn up at the function.

Speaking to ENS today morning, Mann justified his party8217;s action to organise the birth anniversary of the extremist leader, who had died during Operation Bluestar in 1984. quot;We have been waiting for 15 years, but nobody from among the present Sikh leadership had dared to organise birth or death anniversary of the most towering personality of the 20th century,quot; he said.

When asked, if the birth anniversary being organised by his party is an answer to the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations, Mann said, quot;Bhindranwale8217;s birth anniversary is not linked to the Khalsa tercentenary.quot; He however reminded the ruling Akali Dal of the 8216;contribution8217; of Bhindranwale in quot;amrit parcharquot;, which is also a part of the tercentenary celebrations.

Criticising Badal for his refusal to attend the anniversary being organised at Fatehgarh Sahib on February 12, Mann said, quot;Had Bhindranwale been alive, Badal would have licked his feet.quot; Terming Bhindranwala as a quot;freedom fighterquot; and the hero of quot;Sikh nationquot;, he said, the fear psychosis should be shed by the Akali Dal leadership to observe the event.

PATIALA: The SAD Amritsar has appealed to president of SAD Badal and CMP. S. Badal to cancel his party8217;s proposed political conference to be organised at Patiala on February 12 and instead participate in the conference of the party on the same day at Fatehgarh Sahib.

In a statement here today, president of Kisan wing of the party Satnam Singh Behru said that the party was organising the conference at Fatehgarh Sahib to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale but he clarified that party had extended invitation to all the leaders, doctors, professors, advocates and others to participate in the conference.

He claimed that the party gets tremendous response from the grass-root level regarding the conference from different parts of the state.