E-Paper
Judgement in Feb on plaint in museum case
THE PRIVATE complaint filed at the district court against former Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chairperson Bibi Jagir Kaur for objectionable display at Sikh Museum in Amritsar has been listed for final order on February 16, 2006.
THE PRIVATE complaint filed at the district court against former Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chairperson Bibi Jagir Kaur for objectionable display at Sikh Museum in Amritsar has been listed for final order on February 16, 2006.
MP Congress Committee minorities cell vice-president Akhtar Baig has filed the private complaint against Kaur for objectionable words written about former prime minister the late Indira Gandhi at Sikh Museum at Shri Darbar Sahib of Golden Temple in Amritsar.
He has also objected to display of photographs of Jarnail Singh Bhinderanwala, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh along with Sikh gurus at the Museum.
Demanding action against guilty, the complainant has charged ex SGPC head with hurting secular feelings and insisted that controversial pictures and writings be removed from the gallery.
The complaint has been filed under Section 295 A and 124 of IPC before Judicial Magistrate Class I Narendra Jain. The court has recorded statements, evidence in connection with case where Bibi Jagir Kaur has been made accused.
Baig filed the private complaint through his counsel Sunil Kumar Verma after watching a programme on Aaj Tak TV channel on April 24, 2005. The programme showed art gallery with photographs depicting communal violence and beneath one of the photographs was written a sentence, “Indira ne jo kiya, wahi paya.” (Indira got what she did) Accused Bibi Jagir Kaur, who headed SGPC then, refused to remove the photographs and delete the lines etched below the picture.
The videotape also showed a photograph of Akal Takht with a footnote that said that the Golden Temple was vandalised at the behest of Indira Gandhi and Sikh community avenged it (through her assassination). Jagir Kaur told the TV Channel correspondent that Sikhs would never forget that Ms Gandhi ruined their place of worship (during Operation Bluestar in 1984).
Besides, the museum art gallery shows photographs of ‘martyrs’ Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, the assassins of Ms Gandhi, and Bhinderanwale who demanded country’s second partition to create Khalistan, hung along with portraits of revered Sikh gurus who had laid their lives to protect country’s unity.
The private complaint filed in July 2005 has demanded to know how people who incited communal violence and attempted to destabilise the country could be called martyrs and be counted among great personalities or be made historical figures. This, complainant added, is an insult to 100 crore Indians and an attempt to defraud history by leaving a wrong message for posterity.
The complainant had sent a legal notice to SGPC last May with an appeal to remove the controversial photographs and writings from the museum gallery. In response, the Prabandhak Committee invited him to Amritsar for mutual discussions.
