Phoolka deserves SAD ticket: NRIs

Vancouver, Canada: A section of the Punjabi diaspora has urged the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal to allot a Lok Sabha ticket to senior human rights lawyer HS Phoolka in the larger interest of the community. The demand has come after there were reports that he was being fielded as an Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Punjab in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

These NRIs said just as the Akali Dal had left the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat vacant in support of former Prime Minister Late IK Gujral in the 1998 elections for waving off the Union Government loan given to the state for fighting militancy, this time the party should help Phoolka, who has been fighting for justice to the victims of the 1984 Sikh genocide.

A prominent SAD supporter, Gurbaksh Singh Sanghera, said, “Phoolka has been struggling for the victims of the state violence single-handedly for all these years. This is the minimum our party can do to send this man to Parliament to give voice to the victims’ families, who have been running from pillar to post for a dignified closure.’’

World Sikh Organisation director Kulmit Singh Sangha from Calgary said, “Not only the Akali Dal, but other political parties of Punjab should unanimously support his candidature for the sake of justice and human rights.’’

Source: The Tribune