Amritsar (September 27, 2010): The Dal Khalsa held a two-day political training camp at historic gurdwara of Fatehgarh Sahib for its office bearers to do introspection, to streamline party’s functioning, to update their knowledge on geo-political situation and to evaluate the tasks ahead. The message to the youth was to demonstrate courage, resolve and steadfastness.

President of the group H S Dhami flanked with other party leaders including Mr Satnam Singh, Kanwar Pal Singh, Dr Manjinder Singh, Ranbir Singh, Sarbjit Singh Ghuman interacted with 35-odd participants and pressed upon them to give politics a positive turn and discover the spirit within.

To draw lessons out of it, parallels were drawn between the decade long Sikh struggle and on-going Kashmir movement. The determination and steadfastness of Kashmiri youth was hailed.

The inspiring references from the books “Freedom in Exile”, “Long Walk to Freedom”, “Lincoln on Leadership” and “In the line of Fire” written by Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Donald T Phillips and former Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf respectively were discussed to understand various aspects of leadership.

The participants were impressed by Mandela’s leadership qualities especially his knowledge about when and how to transition between his roles as warrior, martyr, diplomat and statesman. Equally, Dalai Lama’s commitment to non-violence and courage to struggle for freedom and justice emboldened their motivation.

There were free and frank deliberations on different topics during the get-together. There was admission about the tough road and long way ahead to achieve group’s aims and objectives. “We had asked our rank and file to reach out to masses to know their pulse especially what they feel about the hardliner groups”.

In a 20-point questionnaire that was made the basis of the discussion, an entire spectrum of issues ranging from continued loot of River waters, influx of migrants and violation of right to privacy by intelligence agencies through tapping phones and intercepting mails figured in the meeting.

The Dal Khalsa meet discussed the issue of the proposed unity move with like minded parties in view of the impending election to the general house of the SGPC.

Trying to put away years of tension between them, Dal Khalsa president told different factions of the Shiromani Akali Dal that they should not treat each other as rivals. Instead Mr Dhami counselled that since all parties drive their strength from Sikh voters the time has come when the different shades of the Panth should work in tandem to achieve Punjab’s sovereignty. In a scathing attack on the Indian government, he said the state was in a denial mood to recognize and resolve the Punjab problem.

Mr Dhami was of the view that youth should not shy away from politics. Rather they should joint it for the welfare of the community. On the concluding day, while interacting with youth, he called upon them to join politics to help solve burning issues.