In a con­certed at­tempt to step up its cam­paign to re­store the orig­i­nal Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar, Sikh hard­liner party Dal Khalsa launched the year 549 cal­en­dar in its orig­i­nal form, as de­signed and pre­pared by Canada-based Pal Singh Pure­wal, ac­cepted by the SGPC gen­eral house and rat­i­fied by the Akal Takht Sahib in March-April 2003 but de­bunked by the SGPC in 2010.

The Dal Khalsa lead­er­ship re­leased the cal­en­dar of cur­rent year and dis­trib­uted to the Sikh San­gat gath­ered on the oc­ca­sion. “We are de­ter­mined to re­store the Nanakshahi cal­en­dar to its pris­tine glory.” The Bikrami khichdi will not work for long.” said party pres­i­dent Harpal Singh Cheema.

The then pres­i­dent of the SGPC -Av­tar Singh Makkar, who was shame­less to ac­cept the amended cal­en­dar has been re­placed from the SGPC lead­er­ship. It is now time to also re­move the other key per­son re­spon­si­ble for the mis­chief -Gaini Gur­bachan Singh-the pre­sent Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib. 

Re­gret­ting that the dates of Guru Nanak Sahib’s Gur­purab, Bandi Chorr Di­vas and Hola Mo­halla were not fixed as per Nanakshahi at the time of its launch in 2003 un­der pres­sure from RSS/​BJP lobby, he said they will build con­sen­sus amongst the com­mu­nity to fix these dates too.

Tak­ing to the me­dia at party of­fice, spokesper­son, Kan­war Pal Singh said, “Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar is no or­di­nary mat­ter. It is a man­i­fes­ta­tion of the dis­tinct iden­tity and win­ning that back is a step to­wards re­gain­ing Sikh sov­er­eignty. The cal­en­dar is a clear sym­bol of the “Sikhs as a sep­a­rate peo­ple”, set up and nur­tured by the Gu­rus.  We view the SGPC made amend­ments as “ab­ject sur­ren­der in the face of the ex­pan­sion­ist de­signs of RSS lead­ers aim­ing to sub­sume the Sikh re­li­gion.

The Badal Dal, un­der the in­flu­ence of a sec­tion of the Sant Samaj tact­fully re­verted to Bikrami cal­en­dar but de­ceit­fully re­tained Nanakshahi its name.

The cal­en­dar re­leased to­day not only has his­tor­i­cal hol­i­days but also dates re­lat­ing to the con­tem­po­rary Sikh strug­gle. Hav­ing the im­age of two girls pro­claim­ing Pun­jab’s Azaadi from In­dian yoke, Dal Khalsa is poised to take their mes­sage into peo­ple’s homes.  

“The pre­sent in­cum­bent of the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee Prof. Kir­pal Singh Ban­dun­gar was in­stru­men­tal in ini­ti­at­ing the ac­cep­tance of the Nanakshahi cal­en­dar in its orig­i­nal form. Dal Khalsa will en­gage with him and the SGPC to cor­rect the wrong done by the in­sti­tu­tion,” said par­ty’s se­nior lead­ers Sat­nam Singh Paonta Sahib and Baldev Singh Sirsa.

“If the Akali Dal had any il­lu­sions of set­ting aside the Pan­thic agenda and win­ning elec­tions on the de­vel­op­ment plank, it should be over af­ter their de­feat in the as­sem­bly polls. Should they want to win back Sikh hearts, ac­cept­ing the Pan­thic agenda and bid­ding good­bye to hereti­cal De­ras and un­nec­es­sary med­dling in Sikh re­li­gious af­fairs is the only op­tion.” said Paramjit Singh, head of the Sikh Youth of Pun­jab.