Bhindranwale portrait row: Karnal Sikhs to boycott BJP, want Khattar to apologise at Akal Takht

The boycott decision was taken unanimously in a meeting held at the village and attended by the members of the community and Sikh preachers from several gurdwaras in the state.

Sikhs in Karnal’s Dachar village on Saturday announced to continue with the ‘Sampuran Boycott’ of the BJP and its leaders, including chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and demanded from the chief minister to tender an apology to the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs.

Members of the Sikh community and leaders during a meeting in a gurdwara in Dachar village of Karnal district.

The move comes following the controversy that the CM cancelled his visit to Dachar village gurdwara citing that the gurdwara management had put up a portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, which they refused to take down.

The boycott decision was taken unanimously in a meeting held at the village and attended by the members of the community and Sikh preachers from several gurdwaras in the state.

“In the meeting, it was decided to continue the boycott of programmes of all leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Besides, no member of the Sikh community will call them to any programme nor will the Sikhs participate in any programme of the Saffron party leaders,” said Baba Sukha Singh of Gurdwara Kar Sewa, Karnal. He also appealed to all the Sikhs to respect the decision and support the boycott.

He further said, “The time allotted to the chief minister to apologise has already passed. Now, he has to tender his apology before the Akal Takht only then he may come to Gurdwara Kar Sewa in Dachar.”

Talking to mediapersons, Baba Ram Singh of Singhra village gurdwara said that they have also decided to honour the boycott and not give siropas to BJP leaders.

They also asked the BJP’s Assandh MLA, the only Sikh face of party, Bakshish Singh Virk, to resign in support of the community or face the boycott.

The decision came a day after Virk assured on Friday that the chief minister has assured a delegation of the Sikhs that he would visit the Sikh shrine in Dachar after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Garhi-Sampla of Rohtak on October 9.

The controversy

The controversy started on September 28 when as the chief minister cancelled his visit to Dachar gurdwara. This agitated Sikhs then decided to boycott the programmes of the ruling party.

Even on Tuesday, a group of Sikh youths showed black flags and Bhindranwale’s posters to Assandh MLA, when he reached to pay obeisance at a gurdwara in Singhra village of the district and later the chief minister also cancelled his visit to Sikh-dominated Dabri village, fearing protest.