SGPC’s action to help SAD consolidate votes?

GS Paul

Amritsar, May 30

A large model of Akal Takht, damaged as if by gunfire, greets you when you approach the shrine at the Golden Temple; overnight, posters reminding the community of Operation Bluestar — and the Congress’ role in it — have appeared at public spaces across the state; a bullet-ridden ‘saroop’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, damaged during the storming of the shrine in 1984, has been placed on public display, days before the usual June 2.

Never forget 1984 — that’s the message the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is sending out loud and clear to the Sikh community. The message acquires salience because polling for the General Election in Punjab will take place on June 1, the day Operation Bluestar was launched 40 years ago.

Apart from this, the SGPC has asked Sikh men to put on black turbans and women to wear black dupattas from June 1 to 6, to mark 40 years of Ghallughara Divas.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the SGPC have an umbilical bond, and it’s clear that SGPC’s actions are designed to benefit SAD.

The Golden Temple is visited by over one lakh visitors daily; on the way they would be greeted by the posters — which have appeared on walls and poles over the last few days — and at the shrine they would view the damaged ‘saroop’ and the Akal Takht model.

SGPC secretary Partap Singh said “it would be inappropriate to give SGPC’s moves pertaining to Operation Bluestar political colour”, and added that the Congress was not their particular target: Saade layi taan Congress ate BJP dono he iko jihe hun (For us, the Congress and BJP are two sides of the same coin).

He confirmed that the posters that appeared overnight were distributed on the directions of Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh. These posters, titled ‘Ghallughara June 1984’, depict the Akal Takht in a damaged condition, and the caption says: Samey di Jaalam Congress Sarkar vallon Sri Akal Takht Saheb ate Sri Darbar Sahib te hamla… Na Bhulanyog, na Bakhshayo.

“The posters were distributed on Jathedar saheb’s orders to commemorate and publicise the 1984 Operation Bluestar, to apprise the Sangat about the atrocities of the then Congress government led by Indira Gandhi,” Partap Singh said, disclosing that over 1,500 such posters were allocated to SGPC-run gurdwaras across the state.

He the SGPC believes that the current PM Narendra Modi-led government too has played an “anti-Sikh” role, notwithstanding the opening of the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib corridor with Pakistan at Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur.

Partap Singh said: “The SGPC was bifurcated only at the instance of the BJP-led Haryana Government, without caring about the sanctity of the supreme Sikh body. The SGPC’s demand of changing the nomenclature of ‘Veer Baal Divas’ to ‘Chhote Sahibzaade Shaheedi’ was turned down. The notification on the release of ‘Bandi Singhs’ hangs in balance. It was the BJP-led Central Government that intervened in the management of Takht Sri Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra and Takht Sri Patna Sahib in Bihar.”

The SGPC is often accused of being run under the influence of the SAD, the ‘Panthic’party that has a majority of its members in the SGPC.

During campaigning, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal has regularly referred to Operation Bluestar, blaming the then Congress regime at the Centre, and urged the electorate not to remember it when they cast their vote on June 1.