To strongly counter the vil­i­fi­ca­tion cam­paign of the SGPC against Nar­ian Singh Chaura, who took a pot shot at Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal a week ago and to ad­dress var­i­ous re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal is­sues cur­rently con­fronting the Sikh peo­ple, pro-Sikh free­dom body Dal Khalsa is hold­ing a Pan­thic Meet on 18 De­cem­ber 2024, at the supreme tem­po­ral seat of the Sikhs, Sri Akal Takht Sahib. WSN re­ports.

In an at­tempt to bring to­gether Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions and lead­er­ship to de­lib­er­ate on crit­i­cal is­sues fac­ing the com­mu­nity and chart a course of ac­tion to pro­tect Sikh rights, iden­tity, and her­itage, Dal Khalsa has made an open call for a gath­er­ing at Akal Takht for de­lib­er­a­tions and de­ci­sive ac­tion.

The call for this gath­er­ing comes in the wake of es­ca­lat­ing con­cerns within the Sikh com­mu­nity, both in Pun­jab and the di­as­pora. These con­cerns in­clude the ero­sion of Sikh iden­tity, threats to re­li­gious free­doms, and ex­ter­nal in­ter­fer­ence in Sikh af­fairs.

Speak­ing to WSN, Dal Khalsa leader Kan­war Pal Singh em­pha­sized the need for a uni­fied re­sponse to these chal­lenges and view that this gath­er­ing would serve as a plat­form for build­ing con­sen­sus among Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions.

“Through this gath­er­ing, we aim to in­spire a new wave of unity, ac­tivism, and di­a­logue, en­sur­ing the preser­va­tion and ad­vance­ment of Sikh ideals.

Kan­war Pal Singh, Dal Khalsa leader

“Though the trig­ger for the meet was pro­vided by the ab­solutely base­less al­le­ga­tions and tall talk of the SGPC Pres­i­dent Har­jin­der Singh Dhami and the Akali Dal lead­er­ship against Sikh ac­tivist Narain Singh Chaura, the meet will now con­sider a va­ri­ety of is­sues and place it be­fore the Sikh San­gat,” said Dal Khalsa ide­o­logue Kan­war Pal Singh.

Ac­cord­ing to party rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the agenda for the gath­er­ing will fo­cus on strength­en­ing Sikh in­sti­tu­tions, ad­dress­ing is­sues of re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal re­pres­sion, and coun­ter­ing cul­tural as­sim­i­la­tion. Ad­di­tion­ally, the or­ga­ni­za­tion plans to high­light in­ter­na­tional is­sues af­fect­ing Sikhs, such as transna­tional re­pres­sion and al­leged hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions.

In their an­nounce­ment, Dal Khalsa stated that this gath­er­ing is not merely sym­bolic but aims to fos­ter ac­tion­able res­o­lu­tions.

Though the trig­ger for the meet was pro­vided by the ab­solutely base­less al­le­ga­tions and tall talk of the SGPC Pres­i­dent Har­jin­der Singh Dhami and the Akali Dal lead­er­ship against Sikh ac­tivist Narain Singh Chaura, the meet will now con­sider a va­ri­ety of is­sues and place it be­fore the Sikh San­gat.

Promi­nent Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions and in­tel­lec­tu­als are ex­pected to par­tic­i­pate in the event, un­der­scor­ing the im­por­tance of forg­ing sol­i­dar­ity across di­verse per­spec­tives within the Panth. Dal Khal­sa’s lead­er­ship has also in­vited com­mu­nity mem­bers from across the globe, em­pha­siz­ing the need for global Sikh voices in shap­ing the fu­ture of the Panth.

His­tor­i­cally, meet­ings at Sri Akal Takht Sahib have car­ried sig­nif­i­cant weight, in­flu­enc­ing po­lit­i­cal and re­li­gious dis­course within the Sikh com­mu­nity. With grow­ing calls for unity amidst in­ter­nal di­vi­sions and ex­ter­nal pres­sures, the De­cem­ber 18 gath­er­ing is ex­pected to at­tract wide­spread at­ten­tion.

Dal Khalsa has re­it­er­ated that the Sikh Panth must re­main vig­i­lant and proac­tive in ad­dress­ing con­tem­po­rary chal­lenges.

“Through this gath­er­ing, we aim to in­spire a new wave of unity, ac­tivism, and di­a­logue, en­sur­ing the preser­va­tion and ad­vance­ment of Sikh ideals, ” said Kan­war Pal Singh.