Chandigarh, Feb 21 (IANS) Anticipating defeat in the assembly elections, Punjab's ruling Akali Dal party has begun playing up on Sikh sentiments to retain its influence over the state's majority community.
The influential Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which oversees the affairs of Sikh shrines and has close ties with the Akali Dal, has decided to build memorials to mark prominent events in the community's history.
Among these events is the Operation Blue Star of 1984, when troops stormed the Sikh religion's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, to evict terrorists holed up inside. About 600 people were killed during the operation.
Just a few weeks before the February 13 balloting, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's government had pushed through the assembly a resolution condemning Operation Blue Star and the anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi that followed the 1984 assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the storming of the Golden Temple.
SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar said Wednesday that the executive committee would consult the clergy on the form and venue of the Blue Star memorial because the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism, was damaged in 1984.
Political pundits say the SGPC decision to build the memorials has also been made with an eye on elections to the powerful religious body scheduled in September.
The SGPC executive committee also decided to build memorials to mark the killing of two sons of the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, the setting up of the Khalsa order's insignia at Sirhind by the guru's follower Banda Bahadur in 1710, the genocide of Sikhs in 1746 and again in 1762.
The June 1746 slaughter, in which about 10,000 Sikhs lost their lives near Kanhuwan in Gurdaspur district, was committed by Ahmed Shah Abdali's general Yahya Khan. The February 5, 1762 massacre at Kum Khera in Sangrur district was also committed by Abdali's forces while retreating from the historic battle of Panipat. About 50,000 Sikhs were killed.