The sant146;s second coming

The decision of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, to anoint him a martyr on June 6 has polarised Punjab again. What looked like a step to bury his ghost has only highlighted his hold.

A few days ago, opposing factions of the Akali Dal and other Sikh organisations joined hands to take out a protest march at Phagwara when the Shiv Sena tore his posters.

Gurtej Singh, a former bureaucrat and professor of Sikhism says Bhindranwale can8217;t be wished away. 8216;8216;He died defending the holiest place of the Sikhs. For them, he is a martyr in the league of Baba Gurbaksh Singh who fell at almost the same spot while defending the Golden Temple against Ahmed Shah Abdali. In the Sikh psyche, he will always be a martyr, and every political party in Punjab knows it.8217;8217;

The late sant is also a mascot of sorts for human rights bodies such as the Khalsa Mission Commission KMC whose calendars bear his image. At the Taksal HQs, he lives on. Garib Singh, a grizzly old man, beams as he tells you how two of his five sons attained 8216;martyrdom8217; in Bhindranwale8217;s movement. 8216;8216;You don8217;t know the ways of the almighty.8217;8217;

It is blind belief that no one in the Taksal is ready to question. So, when Baba Thakur Singh gave a siropa to Bhai Ram Singh last fortnight8212;a mere hint that he could be replacing Bhindranwale8212;there was outrage. The following day the Baba, who is in the USA, recanted.

Much younger, and widely travelled Lakhwinder Singh, who handles the reception at Taksal and serves you a a langar of Coke in traditional katoris, argues: 8216;8216;There are so many conflicting accounts of his death, how can we believe them?8217;8217;

There aren8217;t many signs of the zealot here. No larger-than-life portraits in the imposing gurdwara, no quotes splayed across the wall of the dormitories. But Bhindranwale is alive in the collective imagination. Gurdhyan, 10, who8217;s come all the way from Rampur in UP, blushes as he tells you how the sant is the bravest man he8217;sheard of.

There is more as you thread your way across a row of white calf-length robes topped by blue headgear with the customary sword on the side, chanting gurbani at 2 in the afternoon. 8216;8216;If they call him a terrorist for taking on the sarkar, what about Guru Govind Singh who pitched his might against Aurangzeb, the then ruler?8217;8217; asks Tata.

Ask them to list his contribution, and there is silence. Standing up to the government wasn8217;t something unique to Bhindranwale, Sant Kartar Singh, his predecessor, had taken out 37 nagar kirtans religious processions despite the imposition of Section 144 of the CrPc in the mid 8217;70s. Bhindranwale8217;s legacy was different. 8216;8216;He introduced weapons in the Taksal,8217;8217; says Tata, remembering the former soldiers who were roped in for the task, and the 150-odd Taksal men who fought alongside the sant during Bluestar.

Harbrinder Manochahal, a son of Gurbachan Manochahal, head of Bhindranwale Tiger Force, one of the most dreaded militant outfits, says it was the 8216;8216;santji8217;8217; who gave his late father his first weapon. 8216;8216;Those days, Singhs gave arms as prashad,8217;8217; explains the youth whose room flashes at least 10 pictures of the sant.

But Kanwarpal Singh of Dal Khalsa, another right-wing party, is scathing about the perpetuation of the Bhindranwale myth. 8216;8216;Refusal to admit his death has blocked the way for another leader.8217;8217; Bhindranwale8217;s elder son, Ishar Singh, who quietly accepted the siropa to mark his father8217;s martyrdom on June 6, has the last word: 8216;8216;It is Baba Thakur Singh8217;s shradha, what can I say?8217;8217;

Gurtej has the answer: 8216;8216;It8217;s said a king8217;s reign ends when he dies, a martyr8217;s reign begins when he dies. We8217;re living in the reign of Bhindranwale.8217;8217;