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Ranjit Singh asks Badal to seek forgiveness from the Akal Takht

Onkar Singh in Anandpur Sahib

Dismissed Akal Takht jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh today directed Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal to surrender before the Akal Takht and seek forgiveness.

"If someone submits with humility he can be forgiven but if someone tries to demolish the authority of the Akal Takht and then hopes to be forgiven, then he is mistaken. Badal has to appear before the Akal Takht to atone for his sins," Ranjit Singh said while addressing the congregation of the Sikh Sangat.

Ranjit Singh said he would deliver an elaborate speech to the Khalsa Panth today.

"If you are convinced you will stand by the truth, then you must raise your hands and respond to my jaikara with full throat so that you voice can shake the foundations of Badal's residence in Chandigarh," he said.

The Tohra group made a point when Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Surjit Singh Barnala appeared in his pandal to share the dais with Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Ranjit Singh and Simranjit Singh Maan.

Barnala, who till recently had been denying the Tohra group's assertion that he was on their side, welcomed Vice-President Krishan Kant on behalf of the Badal group yesterday. Barnala was not available to explain his volte face.

Simranjit Singh Mann, President of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Amritsar, addressed the congregation and made some witty remarks, stating the audience may raise slogans for him but it voted for the others. He also raised a demand for Khalistan but found no support from the other speakers.

Former SAD president Gurcharan Singh Tohra dismissed Mann's call, saying it was Mann's own view and not that of the entire Sikh leadership.

Tohra also attacked Badal, saying the SAD president had tried to distort the dictates of the sixth guru, Hargobind Singh, who had founded the Akal Takht.

"When the Guru Sahib founded the Akal Takht he said edicts from the Takht would that of the Wahe Guru. They would be Illahi Hukumnamas. Anyone thinking he or she was greater than the Panth was badly mistaken.

"He [Badal] has been talking of reconciliation now but when the Akal Takht gave a directive in December, the gentleman did not care about it and removed the jathedar of the Akal Takht by force. He also forced me to resign. But we will show him our strength. I feel sorry for Badal because he had been a colleague for a long time. I sympathise with him. He made the mistake of challenging the authority of the Akal Takht and he will now realise that he made a blunder," he said.

Tohra time and again compared the Khalsa March launched by him and Bhai Ranjit Singh with the Fateh March of the Badal group.

"He [Badal] spent [Rs 15 million] of rupee to set up a pandal are there are few people there. They are asking Khalsaji to come there. But in our pandal there is a sea of humanity. The people have come here on their own. We haven't brought them," he said.

Barnala, who surprised everyone by sharing the dais with Tohra refrained from attacking Badal and confined his speech to religious references.

"Three hundred years ago when Guru Gobind Singh Singh set up Khalsa in 1699, people came on their own. Now we bring them by force and by free bus service," he said, making the only direct reference to Badal's use of official machinery to bring in Sikhs from various parties of the state. Both parties in the dispute are avoiding a direct confrontation; one is expected in a few weeks.

The Badal group hopes to wait till April 16 when it will take stock of the political situation. "Right now we will refrain from making any political comment," said Sukhbir Singh Badal, minister of state for industries in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and Prakash Singh Badal's son.

"While Guru Gobind Singh sacrificed his four sons for the Sikh Panth, Badal has sacrificed Panth for the benefit of his son," Tohra had said in an interview.

Badal's group is keeping mum till the end of the tercentenary celebrations, while the Tohra camp is trying to provoke a response from them.

It is not clear what will happen after April 15, the date of the cease-fire declared by Ranjit Singh in December. But things are hotting up in Punjab politics and some big action is expected in the near future.

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