CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann condemned the alleged entry of Delhi Police personnel into Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in the national capital yesterday accusing them of having a "Taliban-like attitude" and violating the sanctity of the shrine.
Drawing parallels between the alleged incident of Delhi Police yesterday entering with the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara wearing shoes and dragged the protesters out and the storming the Golden Temple during the Operation Blue Star.
The Aam Aadmi Party has asked Akal Takht (Highest temporal body of Sikhs) Jathedar Giani Kuldip Singh Gargaj to take up the matter of alleged disrespect shown by the Delhi Police personnel towards Sikh religious practices with the Union Government, as it amounted to the desecration of the gurdwara.
In a post on X, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann wrote, "I strongly condemn in the harshest terms the BJP's police forcibly entering Gurdwara Sri Bangla Sahib in Delhi yesterday. History bears witness that the Guru's abode always keeps its doors open to provide shelter to the needy. If the youth of this country protesting yesterday had entered there, the principle of the Guru's house is that the sevadars would grant them shelter.’’
"The BJP's Delhi police, with their Taliban-like attitude, entered Gurdwara Sahib bareheaded and wearing boots on their feet, and the dignity of the Guru's house was trampled by them. The Sikh community will never forgive the BJP for this shameful act.’’, he said.
A controversy had erupted over Delhi police personnel allegedly entering the gurdwara premises in Delhi on Saturday as some protesters, facing police action during demonstrations against the Chief Election Commssioner, sought refuge there.
The Delhi Police said the video was circulated with "malicious intent" on social media and added that it would initiate legal action.
Responding to the video, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma, in a post on X, said the personnel seen in the video were walking through a common passage used by devotees to reach the point where they remove their shoes before entering the gurdwara.
"The video has been circulated deliberately with malicious intent, to outrage the feelings of a respectable religious community and is prejudicial to the religious harmony," Sharma said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, demanding Union Home Minister Amit Shah should resign on moral grounds for sending police inside the gurdwara, Punjab AAP general secretary and media in-charge Baltej Pannu taking to the media here today, said that after what happened inside the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara yesterday, the Sikh community is very hurt.
"Was this Emergency 2.0? The police entered the gurdwara wearing shoes and then dragged the protesters out. Everyone knows that gurdwaras are the only places one can go to seek shelter and partake of langar." he said
"It is unbelievable that the Delhi Police, which is under the control of the Union Home Ministry, dragged the protesters out of our religious place. Were they criminals or terrorists, who could have harmed people and the police was in a hurry to arrest them that they forgot to observe the Sikh maryada," he asked.
Pannu further added that after what happened yesterday, no Sikh in Punjab would support the BJP.
"If they (BJP), by any stroke of luck, do come to power in Punjab, imagine what they would do to our religious places. I find it strange that both Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal and SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami have maintained silence on such a grave issue, perhaps, because they are hopeful for an alliance with the BJP for Punjab polls," he said.
On the other hand the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), which manages the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, had defended the Delhi Police action yesterday as it stated that the police had entered the gurdwara to arrest protesters.
DSGMC president Harmeet Singh Kalka had accused AAP of playing dirty politics and dragging the gurdwara into the controversy. He alleged that some protesters entered the gurdwara premises with placards and raised slogans as part of their demonstration. He added that the staff members stopped them from forcing their way into the hall.
Questioning the criticism of police personnel who entered the premises to remove the protesters, Kalka said the police had intervened after the demonstrators entered the gurdwara.
Delhi Police detained more than 7,000 protesters attempting to reach the Jantar Mantar during the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi on Saturday.
