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Sikh Youth of Punjab seminar on
Saka Akal Takht
WSN Network
Jalandhar: The
‘Sikh Youth of Punjab’ organized a conclave here to mark the 25th
anniversary of Indian army attack on Akal Takht and sought to
discuss, define and understand what they call “the root cause of the
attack and its impact on the minds of today’s youth”.
The conference
was chaired by Dr Gurdharshan Singh Dhillon, an author of the SGPC
sponsored White Paper on June 1984 events. SYP president Ranbir
Singh held up the sacrifices of Sikh martyrs and their “unimaginable
hardships” as a lesson for youth of the modern times.
“At an hour of
maximum danger, amid the bleakest of circumstances, men who thought
themselves ordinary found it within themselves to do the
extraordinary”.
SYP's Ludhiana
president Saravkar Singh said, “I was not born when the attack took
place in the eighties...I’ve heard of Operation Blue Star from our
fathers and relatives and hail the contribution of those unsung
heroes who laid their lives for cause of religion and freedom."
“Our
participation in the Panthic activities is not instantaneous but
instinctive,” said Gurpreet Singh Mann, organization’s
vice-president. SYP general secretary Prabhjot Singh who was 5 years
old at the time of the attack says most of the teenagers are
anguished over the way the government of India desecrated their
religious places. “What’ve I to do with a country in which I’ve lost
a complete sense of belonging to?” he said.
Setting the tone
for the conference Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh said there are
some of the questions that are repeatedly being put to Sikhs at
large. Media as also the non-Sikhs in general often ask that now,
since a Sikh has become Prime Minister of the country, should not
the Sikhs be happy, and pardon the Congress for what it did with
them 25 years ago? Responding to such queries he bluntly reminded
the audience that it was hard to overcome decades of mistrust and
distrust.
24
June 2009
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