While the political bodies of the former Sikh militants, Dal Khalsa and Panch Pardhani, have decided to stay away from the Sarbat Khalsa, proposed at Amritsar on November 10, the organisers appear to have further distanced themselves from hardliners by keeping posters of the slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale away from the event.

Bhindranwale’s picture is missing from the Sarbat Khalsa campaign despite many foreign-based Sikh bodies, which hold the militant as their icon, funding and supporting the event.

The attempt to stay away from the hardline agenda could cost the event in terms of support. The Sikh Student Federation (Peer Mohammad), listed on the Sarbat Khalsa website as being among the organisations attending the event, on Saturday said it will only land up in Amritsar if a resolution for a separate Sikh state is included in the agenda. “We have given them a deadline till Sunday evening. If they adopt the demand for a separate Sikh state in the Sarbat Khalsa resolutions, we will attend the event, else we will stay away,” said SSF leader Karnail Singh Peer.

Mohkam Singh, United Akali Dal (UAD) leader and organiser of the Sarbat Khalsa, defended the decision to not use Bhindranwale’s posters. “The event is about the Akal Takht and hence a picture of the Akal Takht is being used,” he said. Mohkam was among the organisers of last Sarbat Khalsa held in 1986, in which the resolution to create a separate Sikh state, Khalistan, was first passed. Since forming the UAD last year, however, he has shunned the demand for Khalistan. The organisers have also convinced Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) head Simranjit Singh Mann to remain mum on the Khalistan demand during the convention.

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