BJP design could be assimilation of Ek Onkaar into Om Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: Lots of heat and dust have been raised on the social media platforms at the presence of BJP-ruled Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan at the function organised by the Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal to commemorate army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) code-named Operation Bluestar on June 6 last. Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale, who symbolises resistance to this attack and whose associates fought valiantly and opted for martyrdom, headed this very seminary whose lineage is traced back in history to the Sikh warrior Baba Deep Singh who was associated by Guru Gobind Singh with the compilation of Guru Granth Sahib at Talwandi Sabo now known as Damdama Sahib. He attained martyrdom in the Darbar Sahib complex while fighting the forces of occupation. Sant Bhindranwale represents that tradition. Sant Bhindranwale survives as an idea rooted in this tradition of martyrdom after h...
Punjab enters domain of politics of confrontation close to elections Jagtar Singh Ground Zero May 17: Developments in Punjab are moving at a rapid pace. The land of the Gurus is entering domain of confrontational politics. It cannot be ruled out that both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Punjab, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at the Centre, stand to gain politically from the escalating confrontations that began last month with the defection of seven AAP Rajya Sabha members to the BJP. At the same time, the Bhagwant Mann government has entered into direct confrontation with the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal institution of the Sikhs, over the sacrilege law enacted by the state government on April 13. The narrative emerging from these confrontations is reshaping electoral equations at a time when the Assembly elections are only months away. At least one of these developments is unprecedented and did not receive the attention it deserved: the...