JALANDHAR: The Akali Dal (Badal) leaders June 25th launched 4n Open attack on former Akal Takht Jathedar Darshan Singh and its associates from the Sant Samaj for setting up the Akali Dal (Panthic) allegedly at the behest of the government to Create division among Sikhs so as to weaken them politically.

Addressing a press conference here, party working committee member Sarup Singh and several other Dal leaders alleged that whenever election to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) were to be held, the government through its agents floated such organizations to fracture the political strength of Sikhs So that they got embroiled among themselves instead of organizing themselves against i. They charged that the government had formed the *Sadh Sangat Board’ during the era of Master Tara Singh with the objective of capturing the SGPC but the Sikh community had totally rejected it. They said now Prof Darshan Singh along with his associates was again attempting the same things when the SGPC elections had become imminent. They appealed to the Sikh community to guard against such “contraries aimed at dividing it” a Akali leaders said if the Sant Samaj wanted to get associated in the management of the SGPC, it should hand Over its “deéras,” raised with the offerings made by the sangat, to the control of the SGPC, The Akali leaders said such organizations and their promoters had become desperate after the victory of the Akali Dal (Badal) in the recent Lok Sabha election and had launched a “smear campaign” against party president Parkash Singh Badal, SGPC chief Gureharan Singh Tohra and former chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala.

Without naming the Akali factions and Sikh Students Federations which unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha ¢lection, they said they should learn from their electoral experience and join the panthic mainstream represented by Dal (Badal), But if they Were itching to test their strength in the SGPC elections, they were free to do so, they added. Replying to critics’ charges against Badal, Tohra and Barnala during Operation Bluestar, the Akali leaders reminded that they and other Akali leaders spent a long time in jails after the Army operation, whereas people like Prof Darshan Singh did not do anything to restore the honor and dignity of the Sikh community.

When the Akali leadership was languishing in jails, “Leaders of the so-called Sant Samaj were enjoying in life in air-conditioned comfort,” they added.

The Akali leaders asked how a man like Prof Darshan Singh could be depended upon to give leadership to Sikhs when he in an affidavit to the High Court had stated that he would not enter Haryana in a bid to secure bail. The Akali leaders said Prof Darshan Singh by setting up the Akali Dal (Panthic) has committed the same violation for which he as Akal Takht Jathedar had punished Barnala for failing to dissolve and merge his faction into one Akali party in February, 1986, They appealed to the Akal Takht acting jathedar to give the same punishment to Prof Darshan Singh on the charge of fracturing the Sikh polity in Punjab.

The Akali leaders said besides political maneuvering, these Sikh organizations and the so-called Sant Samaj were also “hatching a conspiracy” to fracture the Sikhs religiously, This, they added, was obvious from the publication of the parallel “Sikh Rehat Maryada” (Sikh code of conduct) to the one prepared by the SGPC after prolonged consultation lasting 10 years with Sikh saints, intellectuals, researchers of Gurbani and political thinkers.

They said leaders of the Sant Samaj were trying to mislead the Sikhs back into the “whimsical Brahminical” order from which Sikh gurus and saints had brought them out after a great and glorious struggle. Besides Sarup Singh, other present at the press conference included G. Singh Narula, Haripal Singh, Surjit Singh Cheema, G.S. Bhatia and B. S. Neela Mahal.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 26, 1996