2/21/2003 5:01:46 PM

Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, MP, has written a letter to his Rajya Sabha colleague, Union minister, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, suggesting that he call a meeting of all MPs from the state for a discussion on issues that concern Punjab and Punjabis. Though focus of his letter is on the matter that concern the Sikhs, he has weaved in some other equally crucial economic and educational issues as well. This letter has come at a time when a wide spectrum of problems have pushed Punjab into a vortex of crises — fiscal, socio-economic, agro-industrial, religion-cultural, etc. — that are now spilling onto the law and order turf. The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, has twice met the MPs from Punjab to identify the issues and post them with briefs on them, hoping they would raise them in Parliament and pursue them with the ministries concerned. While the critics may dismiss it as a political cosmetic move, the fact is that it has created public awareness of the problems that beset Punjab. Despite the process of “reforms” having started in 1990s, these “reforms” are still to remedy or remove “deformities” that afflict the state’s politico-administrative governance. Where Mr Mann talks of ‘’inadequate’’ minimum support price for wheat, he also regrets the Centre withholding its consent to Punjab to sell its sugar to neighbouring J and K which gets it from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Punjab has a stock of sugar worth Rs 500 crore. Mr Mann has reiterated the need for reconstructing the social and economic life of the people living on the razor’s edge in the border districts, of Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Ferozepore, who have suffered on account of heightened tension between India and Pakistan, which necessitated prolonged deployment of the Army. The letter seeks an official statement from the NDA government and adequate compensation to the people. Bringing Punjab on the ‘’religious-tourism circuit’’ is another issue raised by Mr Mann. Should not the Union Ministries of Tourism, Culture and Aviation put Punjab on the international map by developing proper facilities for the Punjabi diaspora around the world? He refers to the on-going Punjab heritage show at Patiala and also Baisakhi ahead, preceded by Hola Mohalla at Anandpur Sahib. For these events the Union Government must step in and declare them national festivals. Since a group of pilgrims visits Pakistan on the occasion of Baisakhi, Mr Mann is keen that Mr Dhindsa take up the issue with the Prime Minister and let it be known well in time if a jatha would visit gurdwaras in Pakistan. Mr Mann has opposed linking up of rivers and cited riparian principles. He hopes that Punjab’s interests would not be ignored on the river and water issues as in the case of the Rajiv-Longowal accord. Also, the issue of the SYL should be buried once and for all. The letter reminds Mr Dhindsa of a memorandum that a score of MPs had submitted to the Prime Minister for setting up of a defence university at Anandpur Sahib. He has suggested that the issue be taken up in the Cabinet. In the same manner, Mr Mann has pleaded that since both represent Sangrur, it is high time that ‘’our area’’ also has some institution of higher learning, say a university. There is no engineering or medical college. ‘’We are terribly lacking in central investment in the field of education. We do not have a single IIT in the state’’. He has also suggested an Urdu academy for Malerkotla. Mr Mann has sought special favour for the poor Muslim families to be allowed to go to Pakistan to meet their relations via Wagah, rather than their taking an unaffordable air route via Gulf. If Mr Mann has expressed his concern over black-listed Sikhs abroad, who are not allowed to visit India, he has also spoken about 30,000 Sikhs in J and K, who have remained ‘’stateless’’ since 1947. Mr Mann’s letter also lists as many as 15 international and UN resolutions on human rights that he took up with the Prime Minister hoping that once India ratifies these, the life of minorities would be much better in India. In the current Budget session, the Hindu Code Bill is coming up for an amendment. Since the Sikhs are a ‘’different’’ people and ‘’separate’’ from the Hindus, as has also been declared by the Constitution Review Commission set up by the NDA government, Mr Mann has asked Mr Dhindsa to take up with the Law Minister to have a draft prepared for a "Sikh code bill".