Sikh radicals declare open war on Badals

Monday, 26/10/2015

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BARGARI (KOTKAPURA): Amid a rising tide of public anger, Sikh radical outfits on Sunday declared an open war on the Parkash Singh Badal government and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in a ninepoint resolution to intensify protests against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.

The religious preachers announced a Sarbat Khalsa (Sikh congregation) on November 10 to discuss all the issues and demanded a new SGPC by fresh elections. Alleging that religious institutions such as the SGPC and the Akal Takht had been discredited, they said the two were not following the Sikh tradition of independent functioning and required to be “freed from the clutches of the ruling Badals”.

Radical preacher Baljeet Singh Daduwal read out the nine-point resolution, while hardliners such as Ranjit Singh Dhandrianwale, Panthpreet Singh Khalsa, Amrik Singh Ajnala, Harjinder Singh Majhi, Daler Singh Keheri, and Simranjit Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) passed it. The resolution asked the government to release the two brothers arrested in a sacrilege case and the people to observe ‘Black Diwali’.

“The Sikh takhts (temporal seats) are dominated by wrong people, and one family has command over the golak (treasury). All need to be freed,” said Amrik Singh Ajnala, head of radical outfit Damdami Taksal.

Lifting road blockades after more than two weeks, thousands of slogan-shouting Sikhs, sporting saffron turbans and black bands, had converged on Sunday at Faridkot district’s Bargari village — where torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found — to attend the bhog ceremony of Gurjeet Singh (25) and Krishan Bhagwan Singh (45), who were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan, 3.5 kilometres from here, while protesting against sacrilege.

The protesters’ convoys of trucks, tractors, motorcycles and SUVs had started arriving since early morning.

In this all-out radical show, leaders from the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and both factions of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) shared stage with the Sikh jathebandis (outfits).

AAP’s Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur asked Sikhs to fight for justice, while Harminder Gill and Sukhpal Khaira of the Congress exhorted the community to “end Badals’ stranglehold over religion”.

AAP MPs Bhagwant Mann and Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, who are from rival factions, were not invited to speak. Prashant Bhushan from the breakaway AAP faction said time had come to end “politics of religion”.