Chandigarh, June 30 (IANS) A meeting of the five Sikh high priests is likely to be convened by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikh religion, to discuss whether the 1984 anti-Sikh riots should be designated a genocide.
Akal Takht Jathedar (head) Gurbhachan Singh said here Wednesday that he will convene an extra-ordinary meeting of the Sikh high priests shortly in this regard.
Over 3,000 members of the Sikh community were killed in anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in November, 1984 in the aftermath of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards at her residence in New Delhi.
The move by the Sikh clerics to term the riots as a ‘genocide’ is said to have taken shape following a move by Canadian MP of Indian-origin Sukh Dhaliwal’s motion in their parliament, seeking that the riots be declared as genocide by the Canadian government.
The Akal Takht chief said the Sikh clerics would discuss the issue and then ask the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to take up the matter with the central and Punjab governments.
‘If required, we will ask the SGPC to ensure that for all future references to the tragic events of 1984, the word genocide be used instead of riot, both in parliament and the Punjab assembly,’ he added.
Welcoming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s apology for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots during his recent Canada visit, the Akal Takht chief insisted that those behind the massacre be punished before Sikhs put the events of 1984 behind them.
Manmohan Singh, India’s first Sikh on the highest executive post, had, during the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Toronto, urged the Sikh community to put the events of 1984 behind them and move on.
