Chandigarh : Clearly unnerved by the secessionist agenda unveiled at the Sarbat Khalsa – a grand assembly of the Sikhs — the Shiromani Akali Dal went into a huddle on Wednesday to deliberate on radicals’ nomination of ‘jathedars’ to head three important ‘takhts’ of Sikhism.
Later, the core committee of the Akali Dal rejected outright the resolutions passed by the Sikh congregation at Chabba on Tuesday, claiming that these were not the ‘voice of the people’, rather just a declaration by ‘radicals’, which cannot be considered a decision of the Sarbat Khalsa (entire Sikh community).
The Akali Dal also blamed the opposition Congress for the current stalemate in Sikh religious affairs, clearly hinting that the party was siding with the radicals. “The gathering was the direct outcome of the conspiracy and complicity of the anti-Panthic Congress party whose leaders gleefully clapped their hands. Such is the brazenness to which the Congress party has stooped in its anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab designs that its senior leaders, including legislators and workers, took part in these dangerous proceedings in large numbers,” the Akali Dal statement said. The party core committee also expressed ‘deep anguish’ at the secessionist tendencies of the radicals and how they proposed to take Punjab back to the ‘old days of terrorism’. The leaders were unanimous in their opinion that the government needed to deal strictly with any elements that fuelled separatist tendencies.
The crisis within Sikh religious affairs deepened after radical Sikhs on Tuesday announced the “appointment” of convicted Khalistani terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, as the Akal Takht jathedar.
The congregation of radicals also announced the “removal” of all Sikh high priests, including present Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh. “These resolutions are a part of a deep rooted conspiracy to disturb the hard earned atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in Punjab and to push the Sikhs and the entire state back into the dark era of bloodshed, murder and mayhem,” the Akali Dal resolution on Wednesday said.
