Addressing a Press conference here today, state party secretary Joginder Dayal alleged that different parties were trying to get political mileage out of the celebrations and exploiting the function for self-glorification. ``The Khalsa was created to fight oppression and injustice,''he emphasised. Ironically, the celebrations had divided the Akalis, the Congress and the clergy, he added.

Commenting on the factional fight in the Akali Dal, the CPI leader said it had paralysed the Badal government. He alleged that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was using the bureaucracy for his political and personal interests. He further said that SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh and Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann represented the fundamentalist forces.

He criticised the state government for ignoring the crisis in the farm sector and devoting its energies to the tercentenary celebrations. The marginal farmers and farm workers, mainly in Malwa region, were facing semi-starvation conditions and successive state governments had failed to take remedial steps, he said. The promises made to the peasantry had not been kept even by the Akali Dal government, he added.

The CPI, he said, would launch a ``jail bharo'' campaign from February 15 to focus attention on the plight of farmers. The party would demand compensation to farmers for crop damage due to natural calamities, waiving of loans and substantial increase in prices of farm produce.

He also attacked the attacks on Christians in Gujarat. He said Christian missionaries were not resorting to forcible conversions as alleged. He attributed the conversions mainly to the rigid caste system. Ending the caste system, he added, needed an ideological and political fight and the BJP should come out openly against the caste system.

Dayal came down heavily on Shiv Sena supporters for trying to escalate tension with Pakistan and stressed the need for friendly relations with neighbouring countries.