Ahead of debate, SAD ups the ante against Cong

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 25

Ahead of the debate on the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report, which will be tabled in the House on Monday, the Akali Dal upped its ante against the Congress on Saturday with the SGPC rejecting the report and demanding that a case for hurting religious sentiments be registered against Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. 

The SAD might be patting its back for its strategy in dealing with the report, with key witnesses resiling from the statements given to the commission. But the Congress still has enough in its armour to politically hit out at the them.

The report does not blame the Akali Dal or its leaders for the sacrilege incidents. Sources say the report fixes the responsibility of Akali leaders for having "coerced" the five Sikh high priests to grant pardon to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, whose followers indulged in the sacrilege incidents. It also blames the then Akali-BJP government for having failed to either solve the sacrilege cases or restrain the police from using force on protesters at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan or taking any action against the police officers responsible for the two firing incidents.

Ideally, the report should have helped the ruling Congress take on the Akalis in the Vidhan Sabha, when the report is tabled on Monday. However, the government has not named top police officers accused of the firing at Kotkapura, including the then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, in the fresh FIR registered at Kotkapura earlier this month. 

Sources within the Congress say they will be blaming the Badals for not taking moral responsibility for the incidents. "It is clear that the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and other holy books took place and protesters died during the SAD regime, a party claiming to be the political head of the Sikhs. Even if some witnesses have retracted, the common man knows that the Dera chief was granted pardon, which hurt the Sikh sentiments deeply. The pardon was withdrawn, but the dera helped the SAD-BJP in the Assembly polls. Since dera followers are responsible for sacrilege, the Akalis will have to answer why the dera enjoyed "immunity" during their rule," a senior minister said.

The Akalis have succeeded in raising doubts over the report with key witness Himmat Singh retracting from his statement. Though former MLA Harbans Singh Jalal continues to flip-flop on his stand, and now maintains that he stands by his statement given to the Commission, actor Akshay Kumar, whose name comes in the report as being responsible for arranging a meeting between the dera chief and Sukhbir to strike a deal for the release of the former's film, too has denied that any meeting ever took place.