AMRITSAR SAHIB—Terming the internecine clash at Akal Takht as sacrilege, the Dal Khalsa said it has pained and shamed all Sikhs, and dampens the spirit of youth, who otherwise were energetic while observing the 30th anniversary of the army attack.
Party’s senior leaders Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib, and Kanwar Pal Singh, said it looks the community has not learned any lessons from past mistakes. “Ironically, we have made ourselves a laughing stock in the eyes of the world community”. They said the clash was a result of simmering discontent between two political adversaries having divergent ideology.
Taking a dig at the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for holding the inquiry, they said there’s no need for any probe as hundreds of Sikhs have seen with their naked eyes what happened over there on that day. Moreover,an inquiry by SGPC will have no relevance or credibility, as it would be preposterous to expect a genuine and transparent probe from the SGPC, whose role itself is under scanner. If at all there was any need, then it should be independent of the SGPC, and secondly it should be headed by Justice (retd) Kuldeep Singh.
They contest the theory of some unnamed mischievous person engineering the clash. “Do we want to portray that Sikhs are [so] naive and foolish, that any unknown person can trigger clash between them”, they questioned.
The internecine fight within the Sikhs and especially between the Mann group and Badal led SGPC is not new. They said, it occurred thrice in the past, and every time the basic reason remained the same, with a slight difference, and added that this time it was because SGPC didn’t provided a microphone to Simranjit Singh Mann to address the audience.
They said the SGPC has set a wrong precedent by filing the FIR against the youth. Slamming both sides, they said that damage has been done, which can not be undone.
They said both the warring factions were responsible for the sacrilege at Akal Takht, and it’s ironic that both were trying to pass the buck. What happened at Akal Takht has disheartened the silent supporters of the Sikh cause, they observed. They said the damage caused due to ruckus at sacred place, and that too on 30th anniversary of the army attack, will have lasting impact on minds of devout Sikhs.
They said senior leadership of both the sides left the venue sensing that trouble is brewing. “They left the venue after the atmosphere had become charged, and in their absence all hell broke out, which was their biggest fault”.
They said that both the sides should take moral responsibility for violating the maryada (code of conduct) and tender apology to the Khalsa Panth. “To stop re-occurrence of such disgraceful incidents, the community will have to evolve a mechanism, otherwise no power in the world will ever support Sikhs in their efforts to gain justice and freedom.”
