 Dera followers holding a congregation (Naam Charcha) at village Teona Pujarian in Talwandi Sabo sub-division of Bathinda district on Sunday. A Tribune photograph |
With signs of rapprochement between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and controversial Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, followers of the latter held a congregation (naamcharcha) in government elementary school here today. More than 800 Dera followers gathered in the school premises and the congregation was held under heavy police protection.
Though the Dera followers claimed that the congregation was organised with the prior permission of the administration, none of the officials concerned admitted this. Talwandi Sabo SDM Jora Singh categorically denied granting permission for the congregation. He said: “I am not even aware whether the Dera followers held their religious congregation in the village”.
DSP Surinder Pal Singh said: “Sensing the gravity of the ongoing Dera-Sikh tension, the police had taken some precautionary measures under which cops were deployed outside the school where the event was held”.
“We performed the responsibility of maintaining law and order, but we neither granted permission and nor we were responsible for granting permission to use the school premises,” he added.
Despite repeated efforts, director general of school education, Punjab, Krishan Kumar could not be contacted. However, his subordinates, on the condition of anonymity, said the Education Department had asked the DCs not to allow such events in school premises.
Baljinder Singh, lambardar of the village, said there was marked improvement in the situation as the naamcharcha went off peacefully in the village that is near Takht Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo where five Jathedars had issued a “hukumnama” against the dera on May 16, 2007. During earlier congregations, the police had to set up several barriers to prevent activists of radical Sikh organisations from reaching there, but this time no barrier was established as followers from 30 adjoining villages participated in the naamcharcha, he said.
Interestingly, while the dera followers were busy in the naamcharcha here, various Sikh hardliner organisations led by SAD (Panch Pradhani) were engaged in dispatching from Takht Damdama Sahib their 62nd jatha towards the state dera headquarters at Salabatpura in support of their demand for shutting the deras.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had reportedly been making efforts to patch up with the Dera Sacha Sauda during the last Lok Sabha elections when his daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal was in the fray for the Bathinda seat. The initiative is said to have worked as she secured an overwhelming majority of votes in the rural areas of the constituency. Now that the Assembly elections in the state are scheduled in 2012, Badal’s effort is expected to bring the Dera followers on his side as the SAD had suffered a jolt in the Malwa region during the last elections in 2007.
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