Longowal Rajiv accord is a mockery of the AnandPur Sahib Resolution. It is a violation, in the nature of a sacrilege, of the vows taken at the Manji Sahib. It is the ‘unkindest’ betrayal of the Panth and an insult to the great martyrs. It was signed by a man who had forfeited his right to represent the Panth after his piteous exhibition of cowardice in ignominiously surrendering to the Indian Army “perhaps by prior arrangement.”
A bunch of half-educated Jathedars and selfish politicians held a conclave at AnandPur Sahib and endorsed the most fraudulent accord, forgetting that the faction led by Longowal forms only fractional part of the Dharm Yudh. Which was launched on July 19, 1982 by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale? Longowal faction joined it on August 4, ’82 after the miserable failure of their Morcha at Kapoori. Subsequently Ex-servicemen and Intellectuals were also involved. Gradually the Dharm Yudh assumed the character of Sikh National struggle.
The treatment meted out to Sikhs during Asiad ’82 and burning alive of eight devotees in a Panipat Gurdwara and stripping of Sikh girls on the Highway by drunken Hindus had unmasked the increasing discrimination and deep hostility of the Brahmin rulers of Delhi towards Sikhs. Sikhs all over the world were shocked at their slavish status in India and joined the Dharm VYudh. The Morcha, thus, became the collective struggle of the Panth as a whole.
Today, no faction or section can arrogate to itself the privileges and prerogatives that belong to
the entire Sikh nation. Nor can any agreement be considered valid unless it is unanimously endorsed by the Sikh Panth, particularly by those families who have lost their beloved ones, properties and jobs in the struggle. Longowal should have considered before signing the hollow agreement that those burnt alive, those killed in false police encounters and those Sikh girls who were assaulted and dishonored were not members of his faction. They were Sikhs who suffered and died because they were Sikhs. They did not die for the narrow gains of a defunct political faction.
By signing the agreement with the discredited section of the Morcha, the clever Rajiv government has tried to minimize and project the massive Sikh upsurge as only a routine political campaign for small grievances.
The agreement is an attempt to arrest the momentum of the struggle particularly in the context of the growing sympathy for the Sikhs in International forums. By signing the agreement Longowal has signed the death warrants of the Sikh youth. Rajiv’s government will now accelerate its manhunt for Sikh youth who would be branded as “terrorists” and “separatists” and shot dead. Rajiv will pretend to be combating “terrorism” and in the process eliminate Sikh young men without being accused of religious extermination.
Once again Sikh sacrifices are on the verge of going down the drain. Repetition of the story of treacherous Lal Singh, the Sikh Commander-in-chief! Of the Khalsa Army, whose betrayal was chiefly in. strumental in bringing to an end the Sikh Raj in 1848, is on the cards. Let us, therefore, not watch as idle spectators the ominous shadows that are threat ening to destroy Sikhism. Time to isolate the traitor: has come. Sikhs everywhere must vocally extenc unstinted support to the stand taken by Baba Joginder Singh and other Sikh organizations who have rejected the agreement. The ‘holy war’ must continue and Sikhs must endeavor through a well-coordinated and a concerted move to throw away the yoke of slavery. Only in an atmosphere of equality and freedom can they hope to sustain their dignity and identity. To achieve its objective ‘Dharm Yudh’ must remain a peaceful movement. Sikhs can hope to Wii through moral force and not by clashing with the Indian Army. Ultimately truth shall prevail and trutk is with the Sikhs.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 2, 1985
