SGPC member Kiranjot Kaur has termed as "highly objectionable" the alleged remarks made by Deep Malhotra, the SAD MLA from Faridkot, against Akali stalwart late Master Tara Singh and his reported association with Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
"It is highly objectionable to say that Master Tara Singh's life story is a proof that the SAD is a political party associated only with the Sikhs and insinuate that Master Tara Singh was not a Sikh even after he became 'amritdhari' (baptised)," said Kiranjot, granddaughter of the Akali stalwart, in a statement issued here on Thursday.
She referred to the said March 14 statement of Malhotra in which he stated that Master Tara Singh was one of the key leaders of the Akali movement and that his story establishes the claim that the SAD is a political party associated only with the Sikhs.
Malhotra, who is among the 10 Hindu MLAs of the SAD, had also referred in his statement to the birth of Master Tara Singh in a Hindu family and that there was no logic in saying that it was for the first time that the SAD had shed its Sikh party tag.
Regarding the birth of her grandfather in a Hindu family, she sought to remind the Faridkot MLA that Master Tara Singh, one of the founders of the SAD and the SGPC, became a baptised Sikh when he was a schoolboy and till date even family members of his fourth generation were baptised Sikhs.
{{/usCountry}}Regarding the birth of her grandfather in a Hindu family, she sought to remind the Faridkot MLA that Master Tara Singh, one of the founders of the SAD and the SGPC, became a baptised Sikh when he was a schoolboy and till date even family members of his fourth generation were baptised Sikhs.
{{/usCountry}}On her grandfather's presence at the first-ever meeting of the VHP, Kiranjot said, "The then SAD chief, Giani Bhupinder Singh, and Master Tara Singh attended the multi-faith (Jain, Buddhist included) conference on the theme 'The essential unity of philosophy, religion and culture among the Hindus in Hindustan and abroad is in need of an urgent awakening' (text from the invitation letter) in Bombay in 1964. This conference resulted in formation of the VHP. Malhotra is deliberately misinterpreting the term Hindu used at that time, which then referred to Indians in India."