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Journalism of Courage
The robe of honour reportedly offered to superstar Amitabh Bachchan recently by the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) at Golden Temple today led to a rift between two radical Sikh organisations, Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa.
Big B along with his family had gone to the Harmandir Sahib following the death of his mother Teji Bachchan.
While former MP Simranjeet Singh Mann-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD-Amritsar) criticised the SGPC “gesture”, Dal Khalsa refused to condemn the superstar.
Dal Khalsa, a radical organisation that was banned for about a decade during militancy in Punjab, however defended Bachchan. “Amitabh’s role in the attacks on Sikhs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination is not established…so we are silent on Amitabh,” Kanwarpal Singh, convenor of Dal Khalsa, said.
Rejecting the charges, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said that the committee never honoured Amitabh during his visit to the shrine. “If he is here to pay obeisance how can we stop him or anybody else,” he said.
“Let these organisations which have already been rejected by people of Punjab establish that Amitabh was honoured at Harmandir Sahib,” he said, adding that “they are spreading propaganda.”
