Even as the controversy over dedicating Operation Bluestar Memorial to the slain Sikh radical leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale is refusing to die down, a memorial in the memory of victims of 1984 riot has given birth to another contention.
Raising objections over the construction of 1984 Sikh Genocide Memorial inside Gurudwara Rakab Ganj in the national capital, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has issued a notice.
The Corporation has pasted a notice on the Gurdwara complex gate, opposite the Parliament House, objecting over four feet high brick platform constructed to be unveiled on June 12 as foundation stone of the memorial.
Shiromani Akali Dal-led Delhi Singh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) is erecting the Memorial dedicating the same to those who lost their lives in Sikh carnage in November 1984.
Undeterred, DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK has made it clear that the “committee would go ahead with the plan of constructing the memorial”.
Condemning the Congress-led Delhi government’s move of not allowing any memorial in the memory of victims of November 1984 Sikh carnage, SAD maintained that it has exposed the guilt of the Congress.
“Today’s development of threatening the DGSMC leaders not to lay foundation stone on June 12 exposes the guilt of Congress. This will prove to be a last nail in the coffin of the Congress,” said SAD secretary and spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema.
He said that former DSGMC president Parmjit Singh Sarna, who had always been hand in glove with the Congress party, has stated on record that the victims of 1984 Sikh carnage cannot be equated with martyrs.
“This has given an impression that Sarna-Congress duo are heading for another conspiracy to stall the foundation laying ceremony and today’s development of NDMC officials issuing notices to DSGMC has proved to be the worst,” said Cheema.
He added, “With this thoughtless decision of not allowing the memorial to be built, the Congress has once again rubbed salt on the wounds of the Sikhs who are struggling day and night for getting justice for last 29 years.”
Cheema said that the SAD has taken the issue very seriously, and will finalize its further programme in consultation with the DSGMC very soon.