Chandigarh, 18 April (khabar khass bureau)
Congress candidate from Chandigarh Manish Tewari has warned the people that if they remained complacent in saving the democracy and constitution, facing a grave threat at this crucial juncture, the ongoing Parliamentary polls could be the last one.
Meeting a cross-section of retired military & civil officers and a galaxy of thinkers/ intellectuals at a gathering organized by Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha at its campus last evening, Mr. Tewari said now the country had slipped into the same political predicament India had confronted in 1947. “As in 1947, the country is again facing severe pulls and pushes whether to strive for a secular and democratic Republic or to get swayed by the religious fantasy allowing it to become a ‘theocratic State”. He said India, at that time chose to be a democratic polity and strengthened it as the world’s largest democracy.
Unfortunately, since 2014 the country’s democratic set-up again underwent a serious threat following undue prompting of communalism and resurgence of sectarian politics, he added.
Pillars of the democratic set-up were undermined in a planned manner in the past ten years leading to stiff centralization of the governance that scuttled the federal polity, Mr Tewari said. That is why, he said, the ongoing Lok Sabha elections should not be treated as a routine of changing the ruling guard, but rather take the election as a last opportunity to save democracy and the constitution.
Mr Tewari eulogized the Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha, a Sikh religious body for taking an ‘unequivocal and unilateral stand’ on its own to save the democracy under threat. Senior journalist Jaspal Singh Sidhu, on behalf of the Sabha, a representative body of scores of Singh Sabha gurdwaras in India and aboard said the country has evolved as a pluralistic one and a home to hundreds of different cultures and religious dispensations. During the interaction with Mr. Tewari, former union minister, and a two-time MP, the Sabha’s Treasurer & Spokeserson, Gurpreet Singh said the minorities should not be subjected to the majority’s cultural and religious hegemony and should not be smothered to become part of a ‘unitary whole’. Similar concern was shared by Gurdial Singh Pandher, retd DGP, NSG with regard to the politicization of the police, paramilitary and armed forces. Retired Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Ranjit Singh said Punjab should not be projected as “a problem” as was being done since Independence rather it should be considered as a Special Case where the Sikhs in a majority needed to be accommodated politically. Malwinder Singh Maali and senior journalist Jaspal Singh Sidhu urged the country should be governed as a “Union of States” as underlined in the Constitution with federalism as the hallmark of politics. Otherwise, they said, the country would plunge in civil disorder soon. Retired military officers- Brigadier Kuldip Singh Kahlon, Capt Gurdeep Ghuman, Major Harmohinder Singh sought decentralizing of the administration to the ground level. Former Deputy Director Food and Supplies Department, Punjab, Dr (Mrs) Ranjit Powar said Mr Tewari should help upgrading of Mohali Airport as destination of international flights and removal of the court restrictions on sale of residential houses in Chandigarh UT. Sabha general secretary Khushhal Singh, Gurvinder Singh and scores of senior citizens attended an hour-long interaction with Mr Tewari who assured them to take up the city’s issues/ problems on priority.
