Sikh body seethes over Centre's 'Bal Diwas' move

The Akal Takht Sahib, the highest temporal authority of Sikhs, and the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC), slammed the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for marking the martyrdom of the sons of the last Sikh guru as 'Veer Bal Diwas' on Monday.

The SGPC termed Modi's effort "a mischievous conspiracy to undermine Sikh history".

The controversy underscores the trust deficit between the SGPC and the Sangh Parivar. On Sunday, the SGPC had appealed to Sikhs to commemorate December 26 as the 'Sahibzade Shahadat Diwas' and not as the Centre mandated 'Veer Bal Diwas'.

On January 9, 2022, on the occasion of Prakash Gurpurb, Guru Gobind Singh's birth anniversary, the PM announced that the government will mark the martyrdom day of the Guru's younger sons, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh (9) and Sahibzada Fateh Singh (7), on December 26, as 'Veer Bal Diwas'.

The Akal Takht formed a committee of Sikh scholars to discuss the 'objectionable nomenclature'. After the committee's recommendation, Akal Takht suggested 'Sahibzade Shahadat Diwas' to the Union government, which went unheeded.

Speaking at the first 'Veer Bal Diwas' event in the national capital on Monday, the PM paid tributes to the two 'sahibzaade'. "Aurangzeb and his people wanted to convert the religion of Guru Gobind Singh's children with the force of a sword, which is why he decided to kill the two innocent children.

Imagine that era when against the terror of Aurangzeb, against his plans to change India, Guru Gobind Singh ji stood like a mountain," the PM said.

SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami said it's a historical fact the sacrifice of the Guru's two sons was significant in uprooting the Mughals north.

But, the way the government insists on marking the day as Veer Bal Diwas, it is clear that it is "playing politics at the behest of anti-Sikh forces", he said.

The two sons were killed in 1704 after the armies of the Mughals, and the hill kings of present-day Himachal Pradesh attacked Anandpur Sahib. Two of the Guru's elder sons died in the battle of Chamkaur Sahib.

In November, on its foundation day, the SGPC wrote to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that the Sangh should "stop interfering in Sikh religious affairs".

The SGPC and Shiromani Akali Dal had earlier accused National Commission for Minorities chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura, a BJP parliamentary board member, of interfering in the religious affairs of the Sikh community by trying to "break" the gurdwara body.