Voices of dissent follow decision to call off agitation in Bargari

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 12

Three days after Dhian Singh Mand, the parallel jathedar of the Akal Takht, announced to call off the six- month-old Insaaf Morcha, profound differences have started surfacing among panthic leaders who were actively participating in it.

Opposing the decision to wind up the Morcha at Bargari, Buta Singh Ransih, general secretary, Shiromani Akali Dal-1920, on Wednesday gave a call for a meeting at Bargari on December 18 for an independent opinion about the winding up of the Morcha from the people who had supported it in the past six months.

Ransih’s announcement came a day after Dhian Singh Mand gave a call for a meeting of the panthic leaders at Fatehgarh Sahib on December 20 to give new outlines of the next phase of the struggle.

Ransih said the meeting at Bargari had been called at the gurdwara where the sacrilege incident happened in 2015.

It is not Ranish who has his dissenting voice to the decision of calling of Morcha. Baljit Singh Daduwal, parallel jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib, has also joined Ransih in insisting that the Morcha should continue until there was a credible and realistic acceptance of the demands.

Speaking to The Tribune, Daduwal said instead of taking a unilateral decision, Dhian Singh Mand should rely on the consensus by involving all individuals and parties who were supporting the Morcha.

“No doubt, Mand Sahib started the Morcha but many groups and a large number of individuals joined it. So there should be group decision-making, not the decision by one individual,” said Daduwal.

About joining the meeting called at Bargari on December 18, Daduwal said he has yet to speak to Buta Singh Ransih.

Ransih said the Morcha was called off at the moment when it was at its pinnacle and the state government was under immense pressure to accept their demands.

“It has brought a lot of despondency to all those who fought for the Morcha in the past six months,” he said.

“In the meeting at Bargari on December 18, I want all like-minded people to sit together and analise the decision-making about the calling off the Morcha. If the majority people say it was a right decision, I will go with it but if the majority has a view against calling off the Morcah, then we will go to Dhian Singh Mand at his residence in Ferozepur and request him to resume it,” he said.

Daduwal said after two cabinet ministers put forward the state government’s point of view at Bargari on December 9, instead of giving an abrupt call to end it, the leaders should have convened a meeting of all leaders and decision should have been taken with consensus.