Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the son of Jathedar Joginder Singh of village RHODE in Ferozepur District of Punjab.

He was a deeply religious man from his very childhood. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi himself had described Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a saint.

The Sant gave financial help. To a Hindu .shopkeeper of Amritsar whose shop was damaged by miscreants. He restored a Hindu housewife of Muktsar who was abducted by some miscreants to her husband.

Referring to the killing of 8 bus passengers belonging to a particular community and other incidents of violence, his father said, ‘‘now that there is no Sant Bhindranwale and none is given refuge in the Golden Temple and other Gurdwaras who is engineering these incidents?”’

A statement issued by the Sant figured in Parliament on Dec. 2, 1983, which was a kind of reaction to the Jai Hindu Sanghs’ ultimatum to the Sikhs to leave Raiasthan by Dec. 5.

In a statement in Amritsar the Sant wondered Balwant Singh Buttar why the Sangh’s ultimatum was not condemned on the floor of the house and why the holding out of a threat by the majority community was considered ‘‘patriotic’’ while any counter statement given by ‘“‘Sikhs’’ was branded as ‘‘antinational.’”’ He said that it showed that Sikhs had no right even to express themselves.

“If the threat by the Sangh does not harm the country, how can my rejoinder to the threat against the interests of the nation,”’ he added.

Referring to the statement of the Home Minister, P. C. Sethi in Parliament regarding the holding of camps in Jammu and Kashmir Sant Jarnail Singh said, “No military training was being imparted at these camps. These were pure Gurmat preaching camps.’” The RSS was holding Shakhas daily and imparting training to volunteers but no one had objected to it, he added (Tribune Dec. 4, 1983). “Military training is part of the Sikh tradition as laid down by Guru’ Gobind Singh and it cannot be a sin because Sikhs never assault innocent persons, he remarked.

The Sant was neither a ‘secessionist’ nor a ‘terrorist’ as the official and other agencies would have us believe. He has been more sinned against than sinning.

 

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 12, 1985