Dear Editor,
The assassination of Sant Longowal has _ proved, among other things, that Sikhs have not learned a lesson from history. There is a striking parallelism between what is happening in Punjab today and what happened after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A few selfish individuals are sacrificing the long term welfare of the Sikh community for their own short term interests. Resorting to undemocratic means for solving the problems is not going to help brighten the image of our community either in India or abroad.
Akali Dal has been, for a very long time, the only representative party of Sikhs in Punjab. If at any time the majority of the Sikh population felt that the Akali Dal leadership had gone astray and no longer represented them, we are sure there are democratic and peaceful ways of ousting them from offices.
If, for a moment, we consider that the government of India intended to divide the Sikhs, we would then say that it has more than succeeded in this mission. Sikhs are more divided now than they ever were. We would therefore urge all Sikhs to look within themselves cool mindedly and see whether behind this facade of unity there is lurking the devil of selfish motives.
Also, we very sincerely appeal to all those Sikhs who are truly concerned about the well being of Sikhs in India and abroad to abandon their attitude of indifference and show active concern by writing a letter to the editor of this paper. This will help start some constructive programs in order to restore the tarnished image of Sikhs to the original sheen that took our forefathers several hundred years to build by their devotion to the Sikh way of life which includes honest living, sharing, high moral standards, helping the oppressed and even sacrificing their lives for a just cause.
Sincerely,
Dr. A. S. Marwah
Dr. Hakam Singh
Dr. A. P. S. Dhariwal
Article extracted from this publication >> September 20, 1985
