Bhindranwale's photo to make re-entry in 'martyrs' memorial gallery at Golden Temple

Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex body which manages Sikh shrines in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh has passed a resolution to install photo of controversial Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the memorial built in the Golden Temple complex at Amritsar to honour those killed during Operation Bluestar.

The SGPC Executive Committee which met in Chandigarh on Thursday, accepted a proposal from the Damdami Taksal, a radical Sikh educational organisation which Bhindranwale once headed. The Damdami Taksal was instrumental in the construction of the controversial 'martyrs memorial' in the Golden Temple complex in 2013 and had installed its leader's picture in the gallery. But it was later removed by the SGPC following objections from Hindu organisations at the intervention of the then Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal. The issue had led to tension between the alliance partners power-Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bhartiya Janata Party.

SGPC executive committee was presided over by Kirpal Singh Badungar, President SGPC. In a press release issued to the media, Badungar said that the committee had decided that about 300 photographs of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, Subegh Singh, Thara Singh and others would be placed at the Damdami Taksal Memorial Gallery, Amritsar.

Executive Committee member Bhai Ram Singh told India Today that this was a long pending demand from the Damdami Taksal. "Taksal has been given the responsibility to get the picture prepared and installed at the memorial, this is just like any other museum," he added. Ram Singh denied any politics behind the move and said that it was an emotional issue for the Sikhs. "Each year a function is held on June 6 to honour those killed during Operation Bluestar at the Akal Takht, this is just a step to give them a place in our history," said the member.

The SGPC committee has also supported the walkout by SAD-B in the Punjab Assembly on the issue of paying obituary to KPS Gill, ex-DGP Punjab and said that a murderer like KPS Gill didn't deserve any obituary. Akali Dal had objected obituary reference to late Gill on the opening day of the budget session of the Assembly on Wednesday.

Also read:

'Bhindranwale's rise from a small-time priest was meteoric'

From India Today magazine: Terror in Punjab

31 years after Blue Star, Bhindranwale still hero for Jammu Sikhs The untold story before Operation Bluestar

How Congress invented a 'sant' What kind of man is Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale?

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale resurrected as cult icon in Punjab