Chandigarh: The robe of honour reportedly offered to superstar Amitabh Bachchan recently by the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) at the Golden Temple on Thursday led to a rift between two radical Sikh organisations — SAD-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.
"Amitabh was a close friend of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and after Indira Gandhi's assassination the two were instrumental in genocide of Sikhs for three consecutive days in 1984," SAD (A) General Secretary, Bhai Ram Singh said.
"Amitabh in league with Rajiv was instrumental in open murder of Sikhs," he stated.
Dal Khalsa, a radical organisation that was banned for about a decade during militancy in Punjab, however defended Bachchan.
"Amitabh's role in the genocide of Sikhs is not established, so we are silent on him. SAD-A must concentrate on their work. We are taking up the issues concerning Sikhs in Punjab," convenor of Dal Khalsa, Kanwarpal Singh said.
"Our alignment with Bittu (a former militant) has made us bad in their eyes," he added.
The radical organisations had on several occasions raised their voices in the state jointly. Recently during the alleged blasphemous act by Sirsa-based sect Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, they took to the streets against the Baba.
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."
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