Radical Sikh outfits 'split' over honour to Bachchan
Chandigarh (PTI): The robe of honour reportedly offered to superstar Amitabh Bachchan recently by the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) at 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 told a press conference here.
"Amitabh in league with Rajiv was instrumental in open murder of Sikhs," they said.
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 Amitabh," Kanwarpal Singh, convenor of Dal Khalsa, said.
"SAD-A must concentrate on their work...we are taking up the issues concerning Sikhs in Punjab," he said.
"Our alignment with Bittu (a former militant) has made us bad in their eyes," he said adding that "they (SAD-A) must concentrate on their work...we are raking issues concerning Sikhs in Punjab," he said.
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