Amritsar, December 11 Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s green signal to his protégé and head of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Avtar Singh Makkar to install a portrait of controversial militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale at the Golden Temple’s Sikh Museum has opened a Pandora’s Box. A week after the portrait was installed, voices emerged for removing the picture of General O. Dyer, the man behind the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

While the SGPC, in a volte face, removed Dyer’s picture from the museum today, the demand for putting up a life-size picture of Shaheed Bhagat Singh in the museum is brewing up a storm now. A local Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Front, which forced the SGPC to remove Dyer’s portrait today, asked the religious body to pave way for installation of Bhagat Singh’s picture in the museum at the earliest.

“The Sikhs are demanding Bhagat Singh’s picture in Parliament. Why have we not installed the picture at our own museum in the gallery of martyrs?’’ questioned Front’s head Gurmit Singh Bablu.

The radicals, including Damdami Taksal, Dal Khalsa and Khalsa Action Committee, had given a deadline to the SGPC to install Bhindranwale’s portrait in the museum by November 30, warning of “taking law in their own hands and putting up the portrait themselves”.

Alarmed by the sting in radical voices, an unyielding Badal tried to take the lead and asked Makkar to install the portrait a day in advance, on November 29.

During the Dera Sacha Sauda controversy too, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti and the Sikh clergy entirely were virtually taken over by radicals, who forced them to change provisions in hukamnamas (edicts) when it came to dealing with Dera head Ram Raheem Singh. This time also they have succeeded to bend Badal to their favour.

But now Badal’s alliance partner BJP has also criticised him on the move and appealed to the SGPC to re-consider its decision.

“The picture was installed following public demand. We feel that it was a mistake to put up Dyer’s picture in the Museum, which we have corrected today. Dyer is a killer and his coward act is unpardonable,” said Makkar today. He said the SGPC would discuss installation of Bhagat Singh’s portrait.

Political analysts feel the decision to put up Bhindranwale’s portrait was taken in haste. “I am surprised that Badal agreed to install the portrait. It is clear that he buckled under radicals’ pressure,” said former head of Political Science Department at Guru Nanak Dev University Dr Jagroop Singh Sekhon. A Sikh scholar, Manjit Singh Calcutta, said Badal was trying to win over hardliners so that he could dent the base of Simranjit Singh Mann and others. “It is to be seen if he would be able to gain much,” he said.

Source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Dyers-portrait-removed-demand-fo...