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Wanted by India, militant leader Gajinder to be honoured by Akal Takht as Sikh Warrior-in-Exile

 

 

Wanted by India, militant leader Gajinder to be honoured by Akal Takht as Sikh Warrior-in-Exile

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

 

Issue is no more that of yet another stamp from Akal Takht reinforcing legitimacy of the Sikh militant struggle commanded by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as the same has been epitomized by Martyrs’ Memorial in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex.

The announcement by the Akal Takht, the supreme religio-political institution of the Sikhs for prayer and politics that represents sovereignty of the Sikh doctrine transcending geographical boundaries, to honour Gajinder Singh, one of the founders of the radical Dal Khalsa organisation, with the title of Sikh Warrior-in-Exile signals confrontation at one level with the Indian state as he was once on the list of 20 most wanted militant leaders by India.

Gajinder is known to be in Pakistan but is stateless technically. Pakistan denies his existence there.

The other person to be honoured is another founder of Dal Khalsa Harsimran Singh who now focusses on research on doctrinal part of Sikh religio-political dynamics and runs his institute at Anandpur Sahib. Both of these leaders along with former All India Sikh Students Federation leader Harvinder Singh Khalsa are learnt to be personal choice of Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh for the honour.

The letter to this effect was today delivered by the Akal Takht secretariat to Kanwarpal Singh at the Dal Khalsa office in Amritsar with copy to Gajinder daughter Bikramjit Kaur who is based in England.

It may be mentioned that another Dal Khalsa founder Manmohan Singh had died as a stateless person in England.

The decision to honour Gajinder in particular from the radical stream has two main dimensions, both in the context of the Akali Dal political discourse and from the Indian point of view.

As stated above, it is a direct challenge to India’s law enforcement agencies as Gajinder is on the wanted list, at least technically. Gajinder’s Facebook page was blocked twice by India in recent times.

He was among those activists who had hijacked the Indian Airlines plane to Lahore on September 29, 1981 to press for release of Sant Bhindranwale arrested on September 20 in the case of gunning down of Hind Samachar group chief Lala Jagat Narain. He completed his jail term in Pakistan and as per the international norm, a person can be tried only once for the particular crime.

The second aspect is in context of the political line of the Shiromani Akali Dal. This party is directly impacted as it controls the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee that manages the Sikh institutions. The Akali Dal has been in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party since 1996. The alliance is in trouble now on the issue of farm ordinances but that is a separate issue. The perception in the Akali Dal leadership is that the party can’t come into power without support from a section of the Hindus. The Akal Takht honouring of Gajinder is significant in the context of electoral dynamics of the Akali Dal.

It may be mentioned that Beant Singh, assassin of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha who gunned down retired General A. S. Vaidya in Pune were bestowed the title of martyrs of the Sikhs and their death anniversaries are observed at Akal Takht.

This decision keeps  alive the dynamics of the radical political discourse. This is for the first time that a leader in exile is to be honoured at Akal Takht.

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