Jagtar Singh

  Chandigarh: The Akali stream is witnessing unprecedented churning in history. It is for the first time that Akali factions of all shades have extended support to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Delhi Assembly elections thereby competing to replace Shiromani Akali Dal as alliance partner. This could be one of the factors that dictated the decision of Shiromani Akali Dal Badal (the original Sanghi Dal) president Sujkhbir Singh Badal to announce unconditional support to its alliance partner despite having been ditched in Delhi. This is happening at the time when present Akali Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has taken a position against the RSS, the paternal body of the BJP. It may be mentioned that the Akali Dal had earlier withdrawn from the Delhi elections after the two traditional partners in Punjab failed to arrive at the understanding in the national capital. The Akali Dal had taken the position that the BJP was dictating it to change its stand...

Chandigarh: In apparently a bold move, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal entered that village yesterday from where the downfall of his party was triggered in October 2015. The village is Behbal where two Sikh protesters were gunned down by the “unidentified” police. Sukhbir Singh Badal was the deputy chief minister incharge of Home department. They were protesting against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in the adjoining Bargari village. The Guru Granth Sahib whose pages were found scattered on the morning of October 12 had been reported stolen from Burj village adjoining Bargari on June 1. The peaceful protest was against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. This was the first case of Guru Granth Sahib been stolen in the recorded history. Here is the irony. Sukhbir Singh Badal never entered that area after October 2015 despite the fact that he had twice represented these villages in the Lok Sabha being the representative from Faridkot seat. These villages us...

Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, who of late has been trying to rejuvenate this highest Sikh seat for prayer and politics, has set up a 4-member panel to go into the controversy surrounding the statues of dancers that are part of the so-called heritage street leading to the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) from the Town Hall in Amritsar. This ‘heritage street’ in effect is an attack on   both the Sikh   as well as the Amritsar heritage. Heritage is not change but preservation. This heritage street changed the very face of the area making it unrecognisable. Heritage is preserving the identity. It is now dominated by Rajasthani architecture. It was beautification project that damaged the Sikh heritage. The statues of the dancers in front of the Dharam Singh market in this street have to be seen in this context. The project was the brain child of Shiromani Akali Dal president and then Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal that was comple...

Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal seems to have miscalculated even after having been let down by its alliance partner the Bharatiya Janata Party in Haryana Assembly elections. The BJP has refused to honour this alliance in Delhi Assembly polls. The Akali Dal has taken shelter under the argument that the BJP set the precondition of support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in present form, the controversial legislation that this party supported in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. What an irony. There should have been a better excuse. The CAA excludes the Muslims, the first legislation in India after 1947 that discriminates on the basis of religion. The Shiromani Akali Dal announced its withdrawal from the Delhi polls last evening. Not only the Akali Dal supported the CAA in both houses of Parliament, the party did not support the resolution adopted in the Punjab Assembly that was moved by the ruling party demanding its repeal. It is this positioning that is impo...

Chandigarh: The simmering disquiet within the ruling Congress in Punjab against Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has finally surfaced with former state party chief and Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa demanding “Amarinder-free Punjab”. He gave vent to his feelings in an interview to a web TV portal on Monday. He called for exit of Capt Amarinder Singh for what he asserted was his failure to even keep up the promises during the last three years thereby providing space to Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to revive his party. It is pertinent to mention here that several party MLAs have come out openly against the functioning of the state government during the last few months, especially in Patiala, the home district of Capt Amarinder Singh. Capt Amarinder Singh and Bajwa have never maintained cordial relations. It was Capt Amarinder Singh who at one time had launched campaigned against him when Bajwa headed the state Congress and succeeded in his removal...

Chandigarh: Gurbani gives the message of love, universal brotherhood and dignity of human being but the sacrifices have been made only by the Sikhs for it. No single person or a company can claim to have exclusive copyright over Gurbani. It is the Sikh collective that has made the sacrifices for Gurbani and the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) that can claim   this right. The claim of rights over the Gurbani telecast from the Darbar Sahib by the TV channel owned by the House of Badals violates this basic premise. Gurbani can neither be bought nor sold. The telecast of   kirtan live by All India Radio was one of the demands on which the Akali Dal launched its morcha in August 1982. The issue was part of the Sikh religio-political discourse much before that. Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan, the radical leader, floated Radio Golden Temple Corporation that managed to smuggle in a   symbolic transmitter. Chohan had constituted Akali Dal (Revolutionary) at that time. The tran...