AMRITSAR,
INDIA AMRITSAR, India (AP) The head
of the moderate state government in Punjab state was excommunicated
from the Sikh religious sect Wednesday because he refused a demand
that he resign from the government.
The excommunication of Surjit Singh Barnala was
ordered by five high priests backed by radicals, and further deepened
the political crisis in this strife-torn state.
''This is all being done to save the Sikh faith.
We are not against any individual,'' said Darshan Singh, one of the
priests. ''Barnala has shown great disrespect to the faith and the
Akal Takht (seat of temporal power) by defying the order.''
Barnala, a devout Sikh, said he was saddened by
the decision. But he told party workers who thronged his residence in
Chandigarh that the party and government would remain stable.
He and all other Sikh politicians had been
ordered by the high priests to resign and form a new, united Akali Dal
party.
On Tuesday, he was declared guilty of religious
misconduct and asked to appear in the Golden Temple on Wednesday to
explain why he did not resign. He was excommunicated when he did not
appear.
In an eight-page letter explaining his reasons
for continuing in government, Barnala questioned how unity could be
forged without consulting various Sikh leaders. He also said that he
did not appear personally because of death threats by Sikh extremists.
Religion and politics have traditionally been
intermixed in Punjab and Barnala's excommunication would discredit him
in the eyes of religious Sikhs.
Sikh analysts here said there was no precedent in
Sikhism of excommunication being revoked.
President Zail Singh was declared a traitor to
the faith following the June 1984 army raid on the Golden Temple but
he later was exonerated after he personally apologized.
Home Minister Buta Singh was excommunicated after
the army attack and has not been welcomed back into the fold.
The high priests on Wednesday also ordered all
elected Akali Dal legislators and members of national Parliament to
appear in the Golden Temple before Feb. 14 and pledge their loyalty to
the new, reorganized party.
The order, read by Darshan Singh before 2,000
Sikhs assembled at the Golden Temple, calls on the Sikhs to shun
Barnala.
The Akali Dal party has been split between
moderates and militants. Barnala, who won the state elections in 1985,
had to rely on the backing of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress
Party after a group of legislators left him and formed a militant
faction last year.
Gurcharan Singh Tohra, a militant opponent of
Barnala, won elections to the powerful Sikh Temple Management
Committee late last year. This led to the appointment of more militant
high priests who excommunicated Barnala.
The Sikh agitation for greater political and
religious autonomy has been increasingly taken over by militants who
demand an independent homeland.
At least 113 people have been killed in Punjab
state this year in attacks blamed on Sikh terrorists. Last year, more
than 700 died.
Sikh Chief Minister
Excommunicated by Sikh Priests
