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Rival Sikh Parades Pass Without Incident In Vancouver

Arthur J Pais

Despite apprehensions by the moderates that Gurcharan Singh Tohra's presence at a parade by rival Sikhs could trigger a confrontation, the two parades in Surrey, on the outskirts of Vancouver, went on peacefully.

The hardliners had planned to invite Bhai Ranjit Singh, the deposed jathedar of the Akal Takht in Amritsar, to lead their parade but since Canada refused him a visa, they extended the invitation to Tohra, former president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee.

Each parade had about 20,000 participants, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Janice Armstrong, adding that the Sunday's events, watched by over 110 police officers, had no arrests or disturbances worth recording. The police department spent about $ 50,000, and as of Sunday there was no understanding which group will pay the expenses.

The Miri Piri celebrations, thus could claim to have been successful, by both moderates and hardliners but many in the former camp were dismayed that the hardliners led by controversial Khalsa School president Ripudaman Singh Malik could muster an impressive gathering.

The two parades marched in the opposite directions and each covered about six kilometers -- each group going to its own gurdwara. There was four blocks of distance between them.

"It is hard to say what might happen," Balwant Singh Gill, president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple which last year gained control from hardline Sikhs, had said on Saturday.

"There are always some idiots in the community," he had added. He had pleaded with city officials not to allow the second parade.

There have been numerous clashes between the moderates and hardliners here; an editor of a Punjabi newspaper has been killed, and dozens of people have been injured during the clashes.

"But today there was a peaceful, almost festive atmosphere," officer Armstrong said. While the moderates were in jitters before the parade, Malik took things easy. He rejected the complaint that the two parades could fuel tension. Instead the simultaneous celebrations proved "everyone could get what they want."

The hardliners shouted pro-Khalistan slogans; some said Sikh soldiers were being sacrificed by New Delhi in the on-going Kargil war, and that the soldiers should not allow New Delhi to use them as pawns in the war with Pakistan.

"Sikh blood should be saved to fight for Khalistan," said Gurmit Singh Aulakh, the Washington-based Khalistani who had sent greetings to hardliners in Vancouver earlier.

Malik said in demanding a ban on the Khalsa School parade, the moderate leaders had shown they did not believe in democracy but he personally bore no grudges against his opponents.

"It is better with two parades," he said a day before the July 4 event.

"This should not be seen as division in the community. We are one people but we are marking two celebrations."

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