Chandigarh(IANS) : The opposition Congress in Punjab Friday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal over the installation of a portrait of separatist Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in a museum inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the mini-parliament of Sikhs.
The portrait was installed Thursday inside the museum, close to Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple) – the holiest of Sikh shrines.
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar attended the portrait installation ceremony with radical Sikh leaders, especially from the hardliner Damdami Taksal sect Bhindranwale once headed.
However, the controversy is not so much on the installation of the portrait as on the wording of the citation which reads, “The great Sikh General of the 20th Century, the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs attained martyrdom on Wednesday, the 6th of June, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honour and prestige of Sri Harmandar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib.”
Bhindranwale had led separatist Sikhs for over five years till June 1984 when he and scores of others were killed after the army stormed the Golden temple complex to flush out well-fortified terrorists.
Radical elements among Sikhs continue to describe Bhindranwale as a martyr who sacrificed his life for the cause of a separate Sikh state called ‘Khalistan’ (Land of the pure).
Punjab Congress president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal demanded the resignation of Badal, whose ruling Akali Dal dominates the SGPC, for allowing separatist elements to raise their head again in the state by this action.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, who share power with the Akalis, too were surprised by the SGPC move.
“This is shocking and distressing. How can such a citation be allowed to be written in a sovereign country. This is nothing but sedition. Action must be taken against the SGPC president and others,” a top BJP leader told IANS requesting not to be named.
Outspoken Punjab Health Minister and BJP leader Lakshmi Kanta Chawla could not hide her disgust.
“If this is the way an august body like the SGPC thinks and acts, what can I say?” said Chawla. The minister herself hails from Amritsar and has seen the worst years of terrorism in that city.
Another BJP member of the Badal government said the portrait and the citation amounted to demeaning the sacrifice made by soldiers who fought against Bhindranwale and his armed accomplices.
Punjab had witnessed violence between 1982 and 1995 with over 25,000 people losing their lives.