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Palki row resolved as Sarna relents
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Baba Jagtar Singh of Tarn Taran watches artisans giving final touches to the gold palanquin in Amritsar on Monday. — PTI photo

Chandigarh, November 21
After a lengthy meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, the President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, here today decided to hand over the golden palki to the Pakistan Gurdwara Management Committee (PGMC) instead of installing it in place of the existing marble palki at Gurdwara Janamasthan at Nankana Sahib.

After the meeting, Mr Sarna told a group of mediapersons that the golden palki would be taken to the gurdwara in a religious procession from Delhi via the Wagah border and be presented to the PGMC there.

“How it should be used and where it should be placed will be decided by the PGMC,” he added. With his statement, the one-week-old row over the installation of the golden palki has come to an end.

Several Sikh organisations had opposed the installation of the golden palki. Even Capt Amarinder Singh who, alongwith three Punjab Ministers and officials, will accompany the procession to Nankana Sahib, had opposed the removal of the existing palki. He had told Mr Sarna clearly that he would dissociate himself from the procession if the plan to replace the existing marble palki was not dropped. As the controversy had begun to turn into a sort of crisis, Capt Amarinder Singh called Mr Sarna for a meeting here to defuse the crisis.

Mr Sarna today denied that he had ever said that the marble palki would be removed. " I am not a dictator to take such a decision", he added.

"The entire controversy regarding the golden and marble palkis was the creation of those who had not digested the idea of taking, for the first time, a religious procession across the border from India. The crisis was deliberately created to sabotage the procession," he added.

Mr Sarna said the procession would be started by the Tamil Nadu Governor, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, from Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi on November 27. On the same evening, it would reach Ludhiana. On the way to Ludhiana, in Haryana the procession would be received by Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister. At the Shambu border, it would be received by Capt Amarinder Singh.

Mr Sarna said that 1,500 persons had been given visas by the Pakistan Embassy in Delhi to accompany the procession.

After a night's stay at the Golden Temple, the participants in the procession would cross the Wagah border on November 29. A religious function would be held at Gurdwara Janamasthan on November 30. At the Wagah border, the Chief Minister of Pakistan Punjab, Mr Parvaiz Elahi, would welcome the procession.