Sikh Activists to convene Panthic assembly on sacrilege

Fed up with dilly-dal­ly­ing and lackluster ap­proach of Sikh bod­ies and po­lit­i­cal parties, Sikh ac­tivists have come to­gether to con­vene a Pan­thic As­sem­bly on 20-21 Oc­to­ber 2018 in Am­rit­sar

Focusing on sacrilege onslaught that has hit Punjab over the last three years, The proposed Pan­thic As­sem­bly will lay the foun­da­tions to nul­lify di­vi­sive ten­den­cies in the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal do­main sup­ported by the en­trenched po­lit­i­cal par­ties and brings in a fresh air of in­clu­sive pol­i­tics.

This Pan­thic As­sem­bly, is an at­tempt to bring to­gether the young and old, fa­mous and not-so-fa­mous ac­tivists and lead­ers from all walks of life –so­cial, hu­man rights, ed­u­ca­tional, le­gal, re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal, from Pun­jab and the Di­as­pora.

The five-member working group of the newly convened ‘Panthic assembly’ are Giani Kewal Singh, Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, Jagmohan Singh, Kanwar Pal Singh and Jaswinder Singh.

Dal Khalsa secretary for political affairs Kanwar Pal Singh, while interacting with media on Thursday, criticised the Punjab government for its failure in taking action against those who have been found guilty of sacrilege and police firing at Behban Kalan, Kotkapuran and Bargari.

Akal Purkh Ki Fauj convener and former SGPC member Jaswinder Singh Advocate said their assembly would also have 117 members, a speaker and a deputy speaker.

“This two-day assembly will be conducted at a palace on the Verka bypass and the sitting arrangement will be done like that in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. A thorough discussion will be held on government’s failure to curb sacrilege incidents, role of police and Akal Takht’s stand for the past three years,” he said.

“The assembly will discuss reports of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission and Justice Jora Singh Commission,” Bhaur added.

Bhaur said our aim is to ensure that the guilty of sacrilege and police firing are brought to justice.

Bhaur further said the ‘Panthic assembly’ will also deliberate upon the Justice Gurnam Singh Commission report on the cold-blooded murder of four Sikh men who were protesting against the burning of sarups of Guru Granth Sahib in Nakodar in February 1986.

As planned and pro­posed by the founders, this Pan­thic As­sem­bly will be a trend­set­ter in set­ting up pro­ce­dures and sys­tems whereby is­sues can be ad­dressed and re­solved through di­a­logue, dis­cus­sion and de­bate en­com­pass­ing the world­view of Sikhs. It will be an en­deav­our to re­vive the his­toric method­ol­ogy of the Sikhs to evolve a Gur­mata –a con­sid­ered con­sen­sus on sub­stan­tive is­sues con­fronting the Sikh Na­tion.

Prominent members of this assembly will be AAP leader who resigned recently HS Phoolka, SGPC’s former general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, former Jathedar Giani Kewal Singh, SGPC members Bibi Kiranjot Kaur and Karnail Singh Panjauli, late Gurcharan Singh Tohra’s daughter Kuldeep Kaur Tohra, Dal Khalsa’s president Harpal Singh Cheema and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh Bittu, Prof Jagmohan Singh, former Speaker Ravi Inder Singh, AISSF president Karnail Singh Peermohammad, former Deputy SAAP leader who resigned recently SGPC’s former general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, former Jathedar Giani Kewal Singh, SGPC members Bibi Kiranjot Kaur and Karnail Singh Panjauli, late Gurcharan Singh Tohra’s daughter Kuldeep Kaur Tohra, Dal Khalsa’s president Harpal Singh Cheema and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh Bittu, Prof Jagmohan Singh, former Speaker Ravi Inder Singh, AISSF president Karnail Singh Peermohammad, former Deputy Speaker Bir Divender Singh, Advocate Jasbir Singh Ghumman, former DGP (West Bengal) Bhupinder Singh, Sukhraj Singh Behbal Kalan and others.