Addressing a gathering at the historic Mela held annually in village Chhapar, about 25 kms from Ludhiana, Beant Singh claimed that his government had freed all Gurdwaras in the state from the militants, who used the holy places “as arsenals, and the terrorize the people.”
Beant Singh warned the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) management against permitting militants use of the premises of the Gurdwaras. The government will have ‘to act to safeguard these religious} places, he said. Religion must be used to guide the growth of personality of an individual, and not to meet narrow political ends, He said that during the last R years, religious feelings and sentiments of the people were “deliberatoly exploited by the Akalis for political mileage.” Beant Singh alleged that the misdeeds of the militants and the Akalis, at the instance of Pakistan, had tamished the image of the Sikhs in the world. “The Sikhs have never been put to a greater Shame than during the last decade.”
Article extracted from this publication >> October 8, 1993
