Total lack of ground support for ‘Referendum 2020’: Amarinder

Chandigarh, August 13 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said the “no-show” London rally by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) for a separate state has exposed the “total lack of ground support” for the ‘Referendum 2020’ even outside India.He also dismissed the entire affair as a “futile exercise” by a “sham” organisation to create trouble in India, particularly Punjab. “The SFJ is just a group of fringe elements that is playing into the hands of Pakistan’s ISI to divide India, but they have failed, and will continue to fail in their nefarious designs,” the chief minister said in a statement here.
“The presence of Pakistani politicians at the rally confirms that it was out and out an ISI plot, which fell through, just as their attempts to create trouble in India have been failing all these years”, he said. Reacting to the UK rally, the chief minister said it turned out to be a “damp squib” participated by a handful of elements. He, however, felt the UK government should have put its foot down and not allowed its soil to be used to propagate anti-India campaign. Further castigating the UK government, Singh said that by allowing the protesters to use Trafalgar Square, instead of the usual Hyde Park generally used for such purposes, it had shown its total complacency in the issue.The entire referendum business is nothing but a “money making racket” of the SFJ, with no takers for the so-called campaign either in India, or even outside, as is evident from the poor show at the rally,” Singh added. He said there was virtually “nil local support” for the rally and whatever little support they had managed to garner was of “similar fringe elements” from other countries.