Delhi Sikh body steps up campaign against Sushma

New Delhi, June 25 : The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) today accused Ms Sushma Swaraj of distorting the Sikh history to suit the RSS ideology of ''communal divide'' and called upon the community to boycott the senior BJP leader till she apologised for her ''unsavoury observation''.

''Ms Swaraj is bent upon exonerating Chandu Brahmin, a courtier who was the main person behind the execution of fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev in Lahore by insisting it was Emperor Jahangir who ordered the Guru's execution,'' DSGMC president Harvinder Singh Sarna said here in a statement.

A resolution in this regard was unanimously adopted by the congregation on the Martyrdom Day of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur at Mehrauli Gurdwara today in which it was said that Ms Swaraj should tender an apolgoy for ''distorting'' the Sikh history by ''absolving'' Chandu of his main role in the guru's execution.

Ms Swaraj, on other hand dismissed Mr Sarna's criticism and stood by her remarks made at a seminar in Tarn Tarn in Punjab a few days ago and reiterated that Chandu was a ''small fry'' to have the guru executed on his own and Jahagir was primarily responsible for his execution as per the Sikh scholars.

However, Mr Sarna alleged that the BJP leader had deliberately attempted to project a Mughal emperor as a ''villain'' for Sikhs with an intention to infuse hate in one minority aganist the other and to camouflage the adverse role played by ''Brahmin s'' throughout the Sikh history.

''Chandu was hell-bent to see the guru eliminated and used all powers at his command towards that goal,'' Mr Sarna said adding that ''Sikhs would not allow the use of the history for political motives of a political party.'' He deplored the fact that none of the SGPC and Akali Dal(Badal) leaders present at the Taran Tarn congregation had opposed Ms Swaraj for ''distorting the Sikh history'' and added that ''political expediency should not be allowed to prevail upon the truth and historical facts particularly pertaining to a faith.'' The DSGMC president said in the past too, some vested interests had attempted to project the Sikh as part of pan-Hindu society and to make the Sikh history subservient to the Hindutva cause. ''Now such machinations will not work,'' he warned.

Meanwhile, Sahitya Sadan Director Bhai Veer Singh and eminent historian Dr Mohinder said ''Chandu was a motivating factor behind the guru's execution who persisted with his campaign against the Guru House and the Lahore's Hindu courtier was instrumental in bringing miseries to Arjan Dev Ji.''

UNI