Sikhs in Haryana on Saturday protested against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar; parts of Karnal district, which has a good sprinkling of people from the community, were tense.
The Sikh protesters are angry with Khattar after he cancelled a visit to a gurdwara in Dachar village in Karnal. Khattar's visit to the gurdwara had been scheduled for 10am on Friday. Khattar's reason for cancelling the visit was the presence of a poster at the gurdwara of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the venom-spewing former chief of the hardline Damdami Taksal seminary near Amritsar.
Bhindranwale's activities were the starting point of militancy in Punjab, as well as Operation Blue Star in June 1984. Bhindranwale's body was found and identified by his family, though for years, some members of the Sikh community maintained he was alive and safe. A few years ago, finally, they agreed Bhindranwale had been killed.
Khattar's action may be much ado about nothing, but similar is the case with the gurdwara leadership in Haryana. They have expressed their resentment, and Janpal Singh, president of the Gurdwara Raj Karega Khalsa Managing Committee, said they were holding a meeting "to chalk out further plans". Sources said they could hold a day-long protest as well as a large meeting of Sikhs at the Gurdwara Kar Seva, Karnal, to decide the future course of action. Apparently, the fact that Khattar visited a nearby temple in Karnal has added to the Sikh protesters' feeling of hurt and humiliation.
The gurdwara in Karnal, like others in Haryana, has been non-controversial, and the state has never seen any radical protests by the Sikh community, even during the communally surcharged days of terrorism in neighbouring Punjab. The Bhindranwale poster has reportedly been around for about a decade now.
Haryana is scheduled to go to the polls in mid-2019.
