Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal on Wednesday rejected all resolutions passed at an unofficial 'Sarbat Khalsa' (grand assembly of Sikhs) by Sikh radicals, and blamed the opposition Congress for the present situation in Sikh religious affairs and in the state.
At the core committee meeting of the Akali Dal here on Wednesday in the presence of the party's chief patron and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the 'Sarbat Khalsa' resolutions were rejected.
"This meeting of the core committee of the Shiromani Akal Dal outrightly rejects all the resolutions passed at a function of the repeatedly rejected and dejected elements at Chabba village," said a resolution moved at the Akali Dal meeting.
"The gathering was the direct outcome of the conspiracy and complicity of the anti-Panthic Congress party whose leaders gleefully clapped their hands. Such is the brazenness to which the Congress party has stooped in its anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab designs that its senior leaders, including legislators and workers, took part in these dangerous proceedings in large numbers," the Akali Dal statement said.
"This was a clear proof of their active role in the organisation of the function which served to set panic in the minds of peace-loving Punjabis. The presence of the Congress leaders meant that the cat is now finally out the bag," the statement said.
Deepening the crisis within Sikh religious affairs, radical Sikhs on Tuesday announced the "appointment" of convicted Khalistani terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh by a human bomb in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, as the Akal Takht jathedar.
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The congregation of radicals also announced the "removal" of all Sikh high priests, including present Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh.
"These resolutions are a part of a deep rooted conspiracy to disturb the hard earned atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in Punjab and to push the Sikhs and the whole of Punjab back into the dark era of bloodshed, murder and mayhem," the Akali Dal resolution on Wednesday said, adding that the party will "expose this conspiracy".
The Akali Dal statement said the Congress leadership was attempting to show Sikhs as terrorists and separatists.
"The Akali Dal rejects the attempts by these desperate elements to snatch from the Sikh masses to appoint their jathedars to the sacred Takhat Sahiban, including the Sri Akal Takht Sahib. The party also outrightly rejects the illegal and illegitimate appointment of so-called jathedars in an autocratic manner without gaining legitimacy through a mandate from the Sikh community," the party resolution said.