Amritsar, Punjab (December 02, 2011): A committee constituted by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is reported to have finalized the palace to build a memorial for attack on Darbar Sahib, Amritsar (also called the Golden Temple of Sri Amritsar) by Indian Army in June 1984, which was code-named by Indian State as “Operation Blue Star”.
In its report submitted to SGPC two weeks ago the committee is said to have proposed that memorial would be build between Shri Akal Takhat Sahib and the Nishan Sahib of Miri-Piri in front of Darshani Deodi of golden temple.
The committee proposed that a small room would be constructed and to would write the history of Bluestar and the names of those who have killed in the action should be engraved on the black marble which has to be affixed around it. Regarding content to be written on it would be decided later, the report said.
It is notable that Bunga of Maharaja Sher Singh situated on right side of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib was initially preserved as de-facto memorial of the attack which is considered to be begining of “Third Ghallughara” of Sikh History, but SGPC never notified it as so. It was decided that the bunga would be kept as it is, as there are numerous bullets marks on it, but recently the SGPC has repaired one of its’ sides. So, alternative memorial may lead to dstruction of de-facto memorial.
Notably, the chief of Damdami Taksal Baba Harnam Singh dhuma, who has joined the Badal’s ranks before SGPC election 2011 and was also a member of the sub-committee, want to steal the credit for the construction of alternative memorial.
“One of the committee members on condition of anonymity has confirmed that they have submitted the report to the SGPC and said that now it was SGPC to take final call on it” says a news report by Senior Jounalist, Gagandeep Ahuja of Patiala.
The SGPC executive committee had passed a resolution to this effect twice – first on February, 20, 2002 and then three years later on May 27, 2005. However, the issue was put on the backburner under political considerations. Irked by the ‘dilly-dallying tactics’ of the SGPC, the Dal Khalsa, in June 2010, organised a three-day hunger strike, to press the then SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar to honour its commitment and in June 2011 Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani), led by Bhai Daljeet Singh Bittu (Currently confined in Amritsar Jail due to political reason) along with other Sikh organizations raised the issue to press SGPC to recognize and maintain the concerned memorial.
Succumbing under pressure, the SGPC, on June 8 this year, announced the setting up of a five-member panel, which was assigned the task to decide the location and design of the memorial within two months of its inception.
The members of the committee included Sant Samaj Baba Harnam Singh Dhuma, vice-chancellor of Punjabi University Dr Jaspal Singh, educationist Prof. Prithipal Singh Kapur, Raghujit Singh Virk (Sr. Vice president of SGPC) and Rajinder Singh Mehta (member SGPC).
The committee had given the advertisement in newspapers and invited and received suggestions from the Sikh nation pertaining to the proposed memorial, a member said.
“Meanwhile sources said that SAD wanted to delay the matter till assembly elections and has asked SGPC to go slow on it” adds, report by Gagandeep Ahuja. He further adds: “Political observers feel that since the Assembly elections are nearing, the SAD leadership would weigh whether the issue would be of any (political) help to them and only then will they decide to move ahead with the plan”.