Sikh group complains to HC of inaction by edu dept

Mumbai: Members of the Damdami Taksal, a seminary of the Sikh community, have sought Bombay high court’s intervention due to the inaction by the state education department with regards to the assurance it had given to remove the description of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a terrorist from the class 9 state board history textbook. Last year, the seminary had approached the high court stating that the word ‘terrorist’ for Bhindranwale was unacceptable as he was ordained a saint and hence should be removed. However, with the new academic year to start in a few days, the education department has not yet removed the word terrorist hence they have approached the court again.

According to advocate Amritpal Singh who filed the petition on behalf of the Damdami Taksal seminary said that after their petition for removal of the word terrorist to describe Bhindranwale was heard, the state had said it would refer the same to the textbook bureau, but nothing came of it. He further said that there was no proof of Jarnail Singh being involved in any terrorist activities as neither a charge sheet nor an FIR was registered against him and hence using the word terrorist to describe him in textbooks sends a negative message to the students. He said that it also hurt the feelings and sentiments of thousands of who revere Bhindranwale as a Guru and Sant.     

Advocate Mathews Nedumpara, representing Mr Singh sought emergent hearing of the writ petition on the grounds that the government ought to be sensitive to citizen’s sentiments and hence should have deleted from the textbook the depicture of Sant Bhindranwale as a terrorist.