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Wednesday, Sep 01, 2004

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National

A touching gesture by Kalam

By Sarabjit Pandher

BRINGING THEM TOGETHER: President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam joining the hands of Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal and the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh, on the eve of the 400th anniversary of the installation of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib in the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Tuesday. — PTI

AMRITSAR, AUG. 31. "Religion unites, not divides" seems to have been the lesson given by the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to the Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh and his arch political rival, Parkash Singh Badal, who heads the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

While the quadra-centennial celebrations of the installation of Guru Granth Sahib in the Golden Temple seems to be providing another opportunity to precipitate the confrontation between the two leaders, the President made a special gesture, which attracted major appreciation.

At a function organised outside the information office of the Golden Temple, the Governors of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh were seated on either side of Mr. Kalam. On the next chairs were seated Capt. Singh on the left of the Punjab Governor, O.P. Verma while Mr. Badal occupied the chair to the right of the Andhra Pradesh Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala.

As the climate on the stage appeared rather heavy, the President got up and grabbed an arm each of Capt. Singh and Mr. Badal, literally forcing them to shake hands. However, the gesture did not improve things. When Mr. Badal got up to honour the guests with siropas (robes of religious honour), Capt. Amarinder Singh was kept out. Earlier, inside the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine, the head priest, Giani Puran Singh, also did not bestow the robes on the Chief Minister.

The SAD general secretary, Kanwaljit Singh, while conducting the stage ignored the presence of the Chief Minister, while welcoming the guests, so did Mr. Badal. Later, the SAD and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) stayed away from the seminar organised on the relevance of Guru Granth Sahib in the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), which was presided over by the President.

The SAD's grievance is that the district administration and the university authorities had, allegedly under directions from the State Government, withdrawn permission to organise a seminar by the SGPC, in the same venue three days ago. However, the SGPC had not invited the State Government for that seminar, though it was earlier given to believe that the celebrations would be organised jointly by the SAD-controlled SGPC and the State Government.

Reports indicate that the SGPC has been insisting that the Chief Minister should not be allowed on the main stage for the September 1 event, when a public rally is being organised to mark the event.

Insiders say that the Akali leadership is quite "wary" of Capt. Singh, especially after he "hijacked" their agenda on river waters dispute by enacting the legislation for terminating the previous interstate agreements.

Responding to the developments, the Chief Minister sought to brush aside the SAD actions as "childish behaviour." However, he said he would reach the venue at New Amritsar on September 1 and if denied "permission" to share the stage with other VVIPs, he would join the "sangat" as a "humble Sikh."

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