The intervention of Akal Takht - the highest temporal seat of Sikhism - to save Khalistan activist Balwant Singh Rajoana has heated up the social and political atmosphere in Punjab. The edict from the sacred Sikh institution issued on Friday night said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should approach President Pratibha Patil for an "unconditional release" of Rajoana.
Rajoana was involved in the assassination of former chief minister Beant Singh and was awarded the death sentence by a court.
The edict has landed the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in a fix. The party has convened a meeting of its core committee on Sunday to discuss the issue and the next course of action. The SAD, which adopted the agenda of development for over a decade, is in a bind over this emotive issue.
SAD secretary and spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema on Saturday said the CM, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal would attend the meeting.
"My government has been taking advice from legal experts. All possible legal steps will be initiated pertaining to Rajoana's case," Badal said on Saturday.
Radical groups, meanwhile, said Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and priests of other temporal chairs should have refrained from issuing an edict to the ruling party and its functionaries since Rajoana had decided against clemency. Rajoana had offered to become a "martyr" and the Akal Takht had accorded him the "honour" of becoming a "living martyr", it said.
Dal Khalsa - an outfit of radical Sikhs - in a letter to the Akal Takht high priest said Rajoana chose the path of martyrdom and the community should accept it. Rajoana is scheduled to be hanged on March 31.
With the Sikh clergy directing Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar to save Balwant Singh Rajoana from the gallows, several Sikh organisations held protests in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur on Sunday against the death sentence awarded to the accused in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
While Sikh youths in Jalandhar organised a protest march from Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Model town to Guru Nanak Mission chowk before marching towards Nakodar chowk, the Dal Khalsa’s youth wing - the Sikh Youth of Punjab (SYP) - held a ‘Khalsa March’ from Hariana to Hoshiarpur to express its solidarity with Rajoana, who is to be hanged on March 31.
The SYP march was led by its president Ranbir Singh and general secretary Manjit Singh. Displaying banners and flags with Rajoana’s photographs, they raised slogans in favour of Khalistan and Balwant.
Previously, a conference was organized at Hariana to spot the anniversary of the Sikh warrior Baba Baghel Singh, who is credited with the unfurling of the Nishan Sahib atop the historic Red Fort in 1783.
In London, several thousand Sikhs from across the UK protested outside the Indian High Commission in support of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana who is sentenced to capital punishment in the case of murder of former Chief Minister Beant Singh.
The protest at the Indian High Commission signalled the start of a worldwide campaign to end death penalty in India. The speakers called on the Indian government to end discrimination of Sikhs. They said that hundreds of Sikhs were rotting in Indian jails and the state was subjecting them to discrimination merely on the basis of their religious identity and their desire for a Sikh homeland.
They said Sikhs held their identity dear to them and they will never compromise on it, no matter what the level of persecution is. Bhai Amrik Singh, Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK), Kuldip Singh Chaheru and Joga Singh (Coordinators of the Federation of Sikh Organisations), Manmohan Singh (Dal Khalsa) spoke to the protestors and resolved that the protest against the death penalty will continue at the global level. Dabinderjit Singh read the open letter challenging the Indian government.