Apologise for forefather’s action in 1919: Cong leaders to Majithia

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25

Upping the ante against Akali MLA Bikram Majithia, two Congress ministers and two MLAs today shared “evidence” and demanded that not only Majithia but his sister Harsimrat Kaur Badal should also apologise for the alleged dinner hosted for the “butcher of Jallianwala Bagh”, General Dyer, by their great-grandfather after the massacre in 1919.

At a press conference, Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and MLAs Kuljit Nagra and Inderbir Singh Baloria claimed there was ample historical evidence available to support the fact that Sunder Singh Majithia was a “British stooge”.

Sharing notes from the works of eminent historians, including Prof VN Dutta, Prof Mohinder Singh and Khushwant Singh, and news clips and British gazetteers, Randhawa alleged that Sunder Singh Majithia also supported the culprits of the massacre of Nankana Sahib and was against any kind of revolutionary activity during the freedom struggle.

He claimed that even the Akalis had denounced Sunder Singh as a traitor. “It is an irony that the people who were denounced as traitors by Akali Dal have now hijacked the same party.”

Challenging Majithia to a debate, the Congress leaders said either he should prove them wrong or apologise for the “misdeeds of his great-grandfather”.

The Congress leaders quoted from Khushwant Singh’s Truth, Love and a Little Malice: Autobiography on how the writer, during his younger days, had gone to get Sunder Singh Majithia’s autograph on a photo album. But seeing the photograph of Bhagat Singh pasted in the album, “he called the martyr a renegade and flung the album”.

Khushwant Singh in A History of the Sikhs: 1839-2004 wrote, “General Dyer tried to win over the Sikhs as best he could. He summoned the manager of the Golden Temple and Sunder Singh Majithia and asked them to use their influence with the Sikhs in favour of the government.”

Also cited was Prof Mohinder Singh’s book Akali Movement: “…the Chief Khalsa Diwan [with which Sunder Singh was closely associated] tried to justify the official action at Jallianwala Bagh…. It called upon the members of the community to cajole those who had gone astray as a result of false propaganda into cooperation and reminded them of the Sikh Panth’s tradition of loyalty to the Crown.”

‘He was a great man’

Reacting, Bikram Majithia said the government had failed to address the issues of farmers, employment and other promises and that is why it had dragged his family into this. “Sunder Singh Majithia was a great institution builder and my family doesn’t need any certificate from Navjot Singh Sidhu. It is being done to silence my voice in the Assembly, but I won’t allow that,” he said.