Amritsar, Punjab (March 07, 2014): Disagreeing with the Punjab government decision to raise a memorial in memory of soldiers who died during 1857 mutiny, the Dal Khalsa questioned SAD’s wisdom in deciding so.

Taking a jibe at Badal Dal, party’s office secretary Sarabjit Singh Ghuman said, “those soldiers who became part of British army and participated in Anglo-Sikh war to end the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh are being praised in the regime of Parkash Singh Badal, who claimed that he was running his govt in the lines of Maharja’s rule”.

He said when history books, historians especially Kirpal Singh, who has been accorded the title of ‘Professor of Sikhism’ by Akal Takht has brought the facts to fore that these soldiers worked against the interest of Punjab and Sikh principles and also robbed the honour of Sikh women, there should be no memorial for such dead persons.

He urged the Jathedar Akal Takht to stop the Akali govt in building memorial and also wasting the money from Punjab’s exchequer. He said even if the government is secular in nature, it has to base its acts on certain values. “Members in assembly represent the will and sentiments of the people concerned. It can’t act in isolation”, said he.

He said the gurdwara built in the name of these soldiers in Ajnala is against the tenets of Sikhism. He said soldiers were neither Sikh nor they died for the cause of Sikh religion. Hence raising Gurdwara in their name is anti-gurmat.

He said the mortal remains excavated from the well were not of any Sikh or Punjabi. He said revelations made by well- known historians and experts should be eye-opener for all political parties and individuals and they should stop terming these soldiers as “martyrs” as their conduct and character san morality.

He said the even if the dead deserve to be counted yet we have to see on which side. “These soldiers remained on the wrong side in the history”, he said.