Greater than 4 many years after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex physique for Sikhs, pushed for Amritsar to be declared a “holy metropolis”, a BJP chief has revived the demand, one thing the social gathering had opposed in 1981.
On Saturday, state BJP common secretary and former IAS officer Jagmohan Singh Raju protested in opposition to the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) authorities and demanded that it’s designated as a holy metropolis. Raju had earlier introduced a starvation strike on the Golden Temple advanced, among the many holiest websites in Sikhism, however later determined to recite from the Guru Granth Sahib after the SGPC knowledgeable him that starvation strikes don’t align with Sikh traditions.
If designated as a holy metropolis — previous calls for have requested for the walled metropolis round a one-kilometre radius of the Golden Temple advanced — the sale of liquor and tobacco might be banned. At current, there are a number of such distributors on the entrance of the walled metropolis. In 2022, Raju requested the Nationwide Fee for Minorities to direct the state authorities to ban the sale and consumption of liquor and tobacco merchandise inside a one-mile radius of historic gurdwaras, together with the Golden Temple. The fee issued a discover to the Bhagwant Mann-led authorities but it surely didn’t reply, in accordance with Raju.
Raju who unsuccessfully contested the Amritsar East seat within the 2022 Meeting elections has stated his protest was a “private initiative”. The BJP opposed the identical demand again in 1981 when the SGPC led the push.
“It’s my private programme as a Sikh to demand holy standing for Amritsar metropolis. However on the identical time, I don’t see any drawback with my social gathering, because the social gathering has no problem with granting holy standing to locations like Haridwar, Varanasi, and others. Why will the social gathering have any problem with Amritsar?” requested Raju, who claimed he was unaware of what transpired over 4 many years in the past.
Different BJP leaders, nonetheless, didn’t again Raju. Senior BJP chief from Amritsar and former Rajya Sabha MP Shawait Malik stated, “The demand has been raised by Jagmohan Singh Raju in private capability. I received’t touch upon this.”
The AAP stated it helps holy metropolis standing for Amritsar however criticised Raju’s protest. “We agree with the demand for holy metropolis standing for Amritsar. However what Jagmohan Singh Raju is doing is nothing however politics,” stated AAP MP and spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang.
In September 1980, the SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra demanded that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declare Amritsar a holy metropolis. The All India Sikh College students Federation and pro-Khalistan outfit Dal Khalsa referred to as for a march in Might 1981 to press for his or her demand.
Nevertheless, on the time, the BJP was against this motion. Simply two days earlier than the march, then BJP MLA Harbans Lal Khanna led a separate march within the metropolis in opposition to the demand, displaying tobacco merchandise. This march led to some violence and Khanna emerged as a divisive determine in Punjab’s polity. In February 1984, a mob led by Khanna destroyed a mannequin of the Golden Temple advanced on the railway station in Amritsar. Months later, in April 1984, militants assassinated Khanna. The BJP’s Amritsar workplace is called after Khanna.
Since then, the BJP has modified its stance on a number of points, together with these of the Dharam Yudh Morcha, a state-wide motion launched in 1982 that demanded, amongst different issues, the declaration of Amritsar as a holy metropolis. The Morcha, led by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), sought the implementation of the Anandpur Sahib decision that broadly demanded higher autonomy for Punjab and Sikhs.
On many points, the state BJP has aligned itself with former ally Akali Dal, such because the standing of Chandigarh as a shared capital with Haryana and inter-state river and water-sharing points.
The BJP has additionally boosted its outreach efforts to Sikhs in recent times, seeking to broaden its footprint in a state the place it nonetheless carries the picture of being a celebration of Hindus and one largely restricted to city areas. The 2019 opening of the Kartarpur Hall, permitting entry to the Kartapur Sahib in Pakistan, was one such transfer. In November 2020, the BJP launched a 44-page booklet on the start anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founding father of Sikhism, highlighting the Narendra Modi authorities’s work for the Sikh group. In 2022, the BJP additionally started marking December 26 as Veer Bal Diwas to mark the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons. The BJP has additionally adopted a sympathetic method towards the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and their calls for for justice.
Whereas the BJP has made efforts to attach with the Sikh group, some new ones have since cropped up. Chief amongst them had been the farmers’ agitation in 2020-21 and the one presently occurring. In late 2021, though the Union authorities withdrew the three controversial farm legal guidelines on the centre of the protests, it was perceived as a reluctant acceptance of defeat.
The BJP’s open help of Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda and a rape-and-murder convict, has additionally emerged as some extent of competition. Even the Akali Dal has been struggling to get better from the harm brought on by its transfer to hunt Rahim’s help in 2017. This yr, social gathering chief Sukhbir Badal was declared responsible of non secular misconduct by the Akal Takht citing the social gathering’s previous affiliation with Rahim. Whereas the Dera has been excommunicated by the Akal Takht, one of many 5 seats of energy in Sikhism, Rahim himself is accused in a sacrilege case in Punjab.
