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Now, a
panel to re-think O' Dwyer portrait issue
WSN Network
Chandigarh: The flip flop does not seem to be adding. The Shiromani
Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) which had gotten a lot of flak
from various sections for removing the portrait of Sir Michael O'
Dwyer from the Sikh Museum in Golden Temple has now decided to
rethink its decision. But before a final decision is taken on the
matter, the SGPC has sought the opinion of a committee of Sikh
intellectuals and historians, who have been asked to give a serious
thought to the issue.
The
drama has gone on interminably. A forum set up in the name of Bhagat
Singh wanted the portrait to be removed. The SGPC promptly did so.
Then some wondered how the history was to be represented if the
portraits of the perpetrators of crime were not to be displayed. The
SGPC started dithering. And now this decision.
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said that the decision to remove
the portrait of Dwyer when the SGPC installed the portrait of Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale may have been one in haste, though those
who took the decision at that time considered that it was a right
move. “I have received several representations from the Sikh panth
appreciating as well as criticising the move. So, the entire
controversy has been put before a committee that will look into the
historical aspects of conditions and circumstances under which the
portrait was installed and the implications of the portraits
presence or absent from the museum.”
Akal Takht jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti had told the SGPC to
re-install the portrait of the then Gov General of Punjab when the
1919 firing in Jallianwala Bagh occurred in which hundreds of
innocents were killed. He has forwarded the argument that in the
absence of the portrait of Dwyer that carries a plaque with the
inscription “Murderer of the Sikhs”, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre,
so integral to the history of the Sikhs and the nation, will lose
its importance for the future generations, who will remain ignorant
of the atrocities committed on the Indians by the British to
suppress the freedom struggle.
It
was amusing for many to see how a portrait that had been hanging in
the Sikh museum since the days of the British rule was removed
earlier this month within days of a hardly known “Shaheed-e-Azam
Sardar Bhagat Singh Youth Front”.
19 December, 2007
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