AMRITSAR: The panthic committee has strongly pulled up Bhai Manjit Singh for his recent activities and has appealed to the Sikh masses to beware of him In a statement signed by Dr.Sohan Singh Bhai Daljit Singh Bhai Harminder Singh Sultanwind Bhai Shahbaz Singh and Bhai Satinderpal Singh the committee noted that 2200 Sikh militants had been martyred in police encounters between 1991 and February 1992 according to police statistics. Since February 1992 as many as 1637 Sikh youths had been killed in fake police encounters. These figures are based on police versions. The actual killings of the Sikh youths may be even higher.
Two brave Sikhs Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda and Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha became martyrs on the morning of October 9. Thousands of Sikh youths are rotting in Indias jails. Repression against the Sikhs has been steeped up in Punjab after the formation of the Congress (I) government in Punjab. The Beant Singh government is trying to punish the community for making the poll boycott a success to the extent of 95%. The martyrdom of Bhai Harjinder Singh and Bhai Sukhdev Singh has brightened the pro-Khalistan movement. The Indian government is trying hard to thwart the movement with the help of opportunist Sikhs.
Serious efforts were initiated to bring about unity among all factions of the Sikh Students Federation after the martyrdom of Bhai Amrik Singh. But Bhai Manjit Singh undermined these unity efforts to harm the proud history of the federation. He formed his own Akali Dal. It appears Bhai Manjit Singh feels much more lured by the glow of Delhi darbars power than the “chardhi kalaz” of Sikh struggle.
Bhai Manjit Singh got help from Rachhpal Singh who had been excommunicated by Akal Takhat in forming his Akali Dal in Delhi. Along with Rachhpal Singh Buta Singh another excommunicated Sikh is Bhai Manjit Singhs advisers. Bhai Manjit Singh appointed Tejwant Singh Skipper as President of his Akali Dal in Delhi on October 14 The main qualification of Tejwant Singh is that he had been instrumental inthe hands of Indira Gandhi to set up a government engineered Akal Takhat after the June 1984 demolition.
The Sikhs had to bring down this government built attractor on January 26, 1988. We appeal to Sikhs not to forget the present Sikh history and to beware of the government designed conspiracies of Bhai Manjit Singh and Tejwant Singh.
In an incoherent reply senior functionary of the federation said that they waited for further initiative from Bhai Daljit Singh after his unity call but none came. Meanwhile Bhai Daljit Singh issued a statement that the federation would be a nonpolitical forum and the members of the federation would be free to choose their political affiliations as they liked Consequently they had to form a separate political party so that dishonest elements did not exploit member of the federation. The federation functionaries further said that they had lent full support to the call for election boycott issued by the panthic committee notwithstanding the fact that all people of the state were opposed to the decision. They denied they had any truck with Buta Singh or Rachhpal Singh. However it was wrong to say that Tejwant Singh had ever been excommunicated from the community.
An influential section of federation workers later in another Statement said that they had nothing to with the counterstatement issued by certain officeholders. The panthic committee had not criticized the federation as such but had taken to task certain individuals. As such they did not agree with the counterstatement. This statement was issued by Bhai Dewinder Singh Ludhiana.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 13, 1992
