Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on March 13 gave a stiff message to the Khalistanis who may be plotting to create disturbance in Punjab in the guise of religious celebrations today, on Visakhi.
Friday is the 325th anniversary of the establishment of Sikh religion by Guru Gobind Singh on the auspicious day of Visakhi, in 1699. There is widespread apprehension in Punjab that absconder Amritpal, facing multiple criminal charges, may surrender at an important gurudwara on Visakhi.
“We won’t allow even a bird to flutter its wings,” Yadav said in response to a question on the possibility that Amritpal might appear at the gurudwara to surrender and his supporters may create disturbance. “Those wanted by the state police will be arrested. Peace and harmony will be maintained,” the DGP said.
Yadav said he was in the gurudwara (in Talwandi Sabo in Bhatinda district) to supervise the security arrangements. His visits to the important Sikh religious centres in recent days, including the Golden Temple, Amritsar, are evidently aimed at building people’s confidence and sending a strong message to the Khalistanis, also to their sympathisers among the Sikh religious leadership. Gurudwaras should not be allowed to be misused, the top cop had said during his Amritsar visit three days ago.
Damdama Saheb is originally known as Guru Ki Kashi, and it attracts special crowds during Visakhi as it marks the place where the tenth guru spent nine months and finalised the compiling of the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth.
The head priest of Akal Takht and the supreme Sikh religious leader, Jathedar Harpreet Singh, had earlier said that the state government was trying to create an atmosphere of panic around the Visakhi celebrations with the presence of such a large security force around gurudwaras.
He has been soft-peddling on the issue of Amritpal and other Khalistanis, the desecration of the Guru Granth by them on February 23 when, using the holy book as a shield, the Khalistanis attacked the Ajnala police station, as also the decimation of the Sikh/Khalsa religious flag by the Khalistanis, who have appropriated it and are using it freely in their violent political war for a separate state.
Last year, soon after the Bhagwant Maan-led Aam Admi Party (AAP) came to power in Punjab, the jathedar gave a call to the Sikh youth “to acquire licenced weapons in keeping with the times ahead.” Maan had met him shortly after that in what was described as a private courtesy call. But it is evident to all that, smarting under the debacle in the assembly elections, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), is itching to gain political ground, with the religious leaders as willing instruments.
It is such political motives that drive the jathedar to take a hard stance against the government on the most well-meant actions, like the present security drive against Khalistanis in Punjab, and remain silent on critical issues concerning the security and welfare of Sikhs all over the country and abroad.
Tomorrow is a crucial test for the Sikh religious leadership. People, especially Sikhs, are waiting anxiously to know if the religious leaders would allow a criminal to make a scene at any gurudwara or act responsibly towards 99 percent of Sikhs, who are dead against the idea of Khalistan.
(The author is a Delhi-based journalist)
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