New Delhi: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Tuesday installed a portrait of Dilawar Singh, a suicide bomber who had assassinated former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995, at the Golden Temple’s Central Sikh Museum in Amritsar.
A portrait of Giani Bhagwan Singh, former head priest of the Akal Takht — the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs — was also unveiled by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami and additional head priest of the Golden Temple Giani Jagtar Singh Tuesday.
Family members of Dilawar Singh and Giani Bhagwan Singh were honoured with ‘siropas’ (robes of honour) at the event.
During the unveiling, SGPC president Dhami said portraits of the two have been installed in the museum “keeping in view their services”.
“Shaheed Bhai Dilawar Singh had put an end to the atrocities and gross human right violations committed against the Sikhs by the then government. The decision of sacrificing himself is not possible without the Guru’s blessing and whenever atrocities are committed on the community, Sikhs have always made history by making sacrifices,” he further said, according to a report in The Indian Express.
Giani Jagtar Singh said that the community always remembered those who made sacrifices for them and played an important role in preaching the Sikh faith, so such personalities are respected by displaying their portraits at the museum.
The Central Sikh Museum already has portraits of several other Sikh militants, including that of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the assassins of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Slain Khalistan militant Bhindranwale’s portrait was installed at the museum in 2007 by the Shiromani Akali Dal-ruled SGPC, which is the apex religious body of the Sikhs.
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‘No Punjabi wants to talk about Khalistan, but they’re suppressed’
On 31 August, 1995, Dilawar Singh, a former Punjab Police constable, had set off explosives outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh, killing then CM Beant Singh.
He had carried out the assassination along with other former Punjab Police constables, Balwant Singh Rajoana and Lakhwinder Singh, allegedly on the instructions of banned Sikh militant outfit Babbar Singh International (BKI).
The Akal Takht had declared Dilawar Singh as a ‘Qaumi Shaheed’ (martyr of the community), and Rajoana as ‘Jinda Shaheed’ (living martyr) in 2012.
Speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, a former SGPC official said that the killings of Beant Singh and Indira Gandhi were not right.
“Maarna maada kaam hai (murdering someone is condemnable),” the official said, adding: “But why it happened is worth pondering over.”
The official further said that “if there are emotions attached to something, if atrocities are being committed, then people may take an emotionally-motivated step”.
“These acts committed due to being emotionally attached with something, are not done because of selfish motives or criminal mindset, but because of the attachment with community and religion. Such acts are seen in that light by the larger community then,” the official added.
“So many Punjabi, Hindu young men, women were killed for no fault of their own…Why did it have to come to this? The governments should have thought why the situations led to such extreme consequences. Don’t commit so many atrocities that people get blinded by emotions and get deviated.”
The official further said that “no Punjabi wants to talk about Khalistan”.
“But why do young people raise slogans of freedom and Khalistan? Because they think that they are being suppressed. False cases are registered against Sikhs. If someone talks about Sikhism or religion, they are seen from a wrong perspective,” the official added.
Another SGPC official told ThePrint: “We have done what we wanted to…This is not the first such portrait. Many such portraits have been installed here [of those] who did something for the Sikh qaum (community).”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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