TOHRA (PATIALA): Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh challenged Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Gurcharan Singh Tohra in his native village braving the appeal of the village panchayats in the area to boycott the political conference organized by the Youth Congress here on Deo.17.
It was for the first time after he took over that an appeal had been issued by the panchayats to boycott his function. Black flags could be seen fluttering on some of the houses in the village and many of the residents stayed indoors. A group of about 49 men, women and children gathered outside the residence of the SGPC chief who is in jail and shouted slogans against the Beant Singh government despite heavy deployment of the police and the central security forces. They also carried black flags.
Beant Singh devoted most of the time to lambast the Akalis whom he called upon to spell their policy, whether they wanted peace or not. His attack was particularly targeted against the SGPC chief, Beant Singh missed some very pertinent issues for the Akalis to ponder over, and these pertained to the sanctity of the gurdwaras when the militants were in defector control of the shrines and the altitude of the Akalis towards such incidents including rapes and killings. ‘The Akalis never condemned such incidents; He said the Akalis were not religious but exploited religious sentiments to grab power.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 24, 1993
