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BJP national president Nitin Gadkari’s days of trouble, it seems, are not over yet.
After having rubbed the Yadav duo, of Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal, the wrong way with his remarks, it was the turn of the Sikh community to feel offended over the description of Banda Singh Bahadur by Gadkari and his party colleagues during the tercentenary celebrations of the ‘Sirhind Fateh Diwas’.
While addressing the gathering at Fatehgarh Sahib, about 50 km away from here, Gadkari and his men — BJP general secretary Balbir Punj and Punjab cabinet minister Manoranjan Kalia repeatedly referred to the Sikh general, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, as ‘Banda Veer Bairagi’— an address, which the Sikh community considers is a ‘deep seated conspiracy of RSS and BJP to discredit the Khalsa swaroop (identity)’.
Incidentally, minutes before their address, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, while reading out his message on the occasion, had warned the Sikhs about “distortions in history, showing Banda Singh Bahadur in bad light and to present him as bairagi (ascetic) swaroop instead of the Amritdhari Sikh that he had become”.
He also cautioned against similar attempts being made by ‘gair-Sikhs (non-Sikhs)’ in the present day world, and that the community should give a befitting reply to such attempts.
Gadkari also erroneously mentioned that Banda Bahadur was ‘brought up in Maharashtra and had studied there’ while stating that he was coming from the same state. According to Sikh history, Banda spent his formative years in J&K and went to Maharashtra only after he had turned ascetic.
In a setback to the Mughal rulers, the celebrated Sikh general and his men had defeated the province of Sirhind in May 1710 and then established the first, though, short-lived, Khalsa Raj in the area.
After having rubbed the Yadav duo, of Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal, the wrong way with his remarks, it was the turn of the Sikh community to feel offended over the description of Banda Singh Bahadur by Gadkari and his party colleagues during the tercentenary celebrations of the ‘Sirhind Fateh Diwas’.
While addressing the gathering at Fatehgarh Sahib, about 50 km away from here, Gadkari and his men — BJP general secretary Balbir Punj and Punjab cabinet minister Manoranjan Kalia repeatedly referred to the Sikh general, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, as ‘Banda Veer Bairagi’— an address, which the Sikh community considers is a ‘deep seated conspiracy of RSS and BJP to discredit the Khalsa swaroop (identity)’.
Incidentally, minutes before their address, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, while reading out his message on the occasion, had warned the Sikhs about “distortions in history, showing Banda Singh Bahadur in bad light and to present him as bairagi (ascetic) swaroop instead of the Amritdhari Sikh that he had become”.
He also cautioned against similar attempts being made by ‘gair-Sikhs (non-Sikhs)’ in the present day world, and that the community should give a befitting reply to such attempts.
Gadkari also erroneously mentioned that Banda Bahadur was ‘brought up in Maharashtra and had studied there’ while stating that he was coming from the same state. According to Sikh history, Banda spent his formative years in J&K and went to Maharashtra only after he had turned ascetic.
In a setback to the Mughal rulers, the celebrated Sikh general and his men had defeated the province of Sirhind in May 1710 and then established the first, though, short-lived, Khalsa Raj in the area.
