New Delhi, April 19:
PM Narendra Modi will address the nation from Red Fort on April 21, to mark the 400th birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, the Union Ministry of Culture said on Monday.
The PM’s address will mark the culmination of a two-day mega event being organised by the ministry at Red Fort, in collaboration with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy said. In his speech, which is expected around 9:30 pm after ‘shabad kirtan’ by 400 ragis (Sikh musicians), the PM is likely to focus on relaying a message of interfaith peace, said sources.
Ministry officials said the Red Fort was chosen as the venue for two reasons. “First, it was the place from where Mughal ruler Aurangzeb gave orders for the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur in 1675. Second, the ramparts of Red Fort is from where the PM addresses the nation on Independence Day, so it’s an ideal place to reach out to the people with a message of interfaith peace,” said an official.
In 2018, Modi had unfurled the national flag and made an address from Red Fort to mark the 75th anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj.
Announcing the event on Monday, Reddy said: “Guru Tegh Bahadur stood up to the atrocities of the Mughals by protecting the freedom of dharmic faiths; he fought for the rights of Sikhs and Hindus. Despite being physically tortured by the Mughals for conversion, he stood his ground and chose to give away his life and not his belief system… He fought against forcible mass conversions of Kashmiri Pandits and this left the Mughals livid.”
Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk was built at the site where he was beheaded by the Mughals, while Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib was built at his cremation site, the minister said.
Reddy said Union Home Minister Amit Shah will kick off the event on April 20 evening, which will be attended by 11 chief ministers and prominent Sikh leaders from across the country. The families of 400 Sikh jathedars have also been invited, including those from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The inaugural programme will include a laser light show. There will also be an exhibition on the life and times of the Sikh guru at the Red Fort forecourt for two days. On April 21, after his address, the PM will release a postal stamp and a commemorative coin on the Sikh guru, to be followed by a langar (community kitchen).
The BJP has been making a concerted effort to woo the Sikh community even after the party’s poor showing in the Punjab elections, in which it won only two seats. Just four days after the results, Modi invited a group of Sikh intellectuals from Punjab to his official residence in Delhi. Those who attended the meeting called it an exchange of ideas with a PM who seemed open to their concerns.
On April 1, BJP sent its union minister and Punjab in-charge Gajendra Shekhawat to attend a memorial function for SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra at his ancestral village near Patiala even as most state leaders kept away. The party also encouraged its Haryana unit to observe the death anniversary of Bhagat Singh with a slew of events across the state.
Earlier, in a series of overtures to the Sikhs in the run-up to the February polls, the PM repealed the three contentious farm laws on Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 19 last year. The party also welcomed into its fold a number of Sikhs, including Tohra’s grandson Kanwarveer Singh.
