AMRITSAR: Dal Khalsa has taken exception to the Central government’s proposed move to invoke Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1988, to stop the construction work on memorial being raised in memory of Sikh martyrs of June 1984 attack.
In a strongly worded statement party head H S Dhami and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said the Center should desist from adding fuel to fire.
They said the Indian state attacked Darbar Sahib 28 years ago and the scars of the assault were still fresh on Sikh psyche. Now, in case the Centre puts hurdles to thwart the construction work it would amount to scratching those scars. “The situation in Punjab would return where it was in 80’s, they warned. They asked the PMO and Home Ministry to hands off from the internal affairs of Sikh Panth.
They took a jibe at state chief minister and deputy chief minister for going on defensive while reacting to hue and cry raised by Congress and likes of Gen KS Brar on memorial. There was no need for Senior and junior Badal to be apologetic, they opined.
“Gen Brar was parroting the version of the country’s establishment”, they pointed out. They blamed the Congress and a select media for making perpetrators of Sikh genocide as “heroes”.
They also went all out to defend the act of the SGPC in honouring Harjinder Singh and Sukhdev Singh, assassin of former Army chief Gen AS Vaidya at Akal Takht on the occasion to commemorate their 20th death anniversary.
Ever since Jinda and Sukha were hanged in 1992, the SGPC with the active participation of Sikh groups have been organizing the day by holding 'akhand path' in their memory and eulogizing their supreme sacrifice. Both wondered as to why after so long the issue has been raked up. They said the Central forces were trying to raise the bogey of revival of militancy in Punjab to unleash a “fresh wave of repression on youth”.
