Punjab Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday criticised the Cabinet decision giving approval for setting up of the Khalsa University at Amritsar, thus virtually demolishing a historic institution like Khalsa College, Amritsar.
“It is part of our Khalsa history and heritage and today, I promise that the day Congress forms the Government, we will restore back its status,” he said, while warning, “it may prove to be the last nail in the Badals’ coffin”.
Asking Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal not to pass the Act in the Assembly, Amarinder, who has also served as the Chancellor of the Khalsa College, Amritsar, said: “Despite lot of popular resentment, if he still goes ahead and misuses his brute majority in the Assembly to enact the Act for setting up the university, the Congress Government will repeal it and restore the original status of the Khalsa College Amritsar.”
“Apparently inspired by the Badals, Majithias have done to Khalsa College, what the Badals have done to the SGPC,” he added.
Questioning the very logic behind setting up the Khalsa University that will share boundary wall with the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, the PPCC president suggested that if the Badals and the Majithias were really serious about setting up an institution of higher learning, they should better have set up it in the southern Punjab around Mansa, Barnala or Sangrur, where there is no university. There are not enough colleges even in that area, he added.
Referring to the history and heritage of Khalsa College, Amritsar, he said that it was set up by the leading families of the Sikh community with huge contributions. “Our own Patiala family had also made substantial contribution in setting up of the Khalsa College, Amritsar, and we would never have imagined that it will be grabbed by some greedy people like the Badals and the Majithias after 100 years,” he said.