3-day Baisakhi mela to begin from April 12, security beefed up in Bathinda

The three-day-long Baisakhi mela will be organised at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda constituency from April 12. Lakhs of devotees are expected to pay obeisance at Takht Damdama Sahib, which is one of the five Takhts or seats of temporal authority of Sikhism.  Every year this mela is organised at Damdama Sahib, but this time it is the talk of the town after Amritpal Singh – the self-styled fugitive Sikh preacher and ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief – through his videos had asked the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh to call Sarbat Khalsa (an assembly of all factions of Sikhs) at Damdama Sahib. Rumours are doing the rounds that Amritpal Singh may surrender himself before the police at Takht Damdama Sahib. However, the Jathedar never gave any call for Sarbat Khalsa.

Gurmat Samagam started on April 10 and it will continue till April 14. Gurmat Samagam is a programme where people gather to listen to the teachings of gurus.Several people have been invited at Talwandi Sabo for kirtan and talks on all these days.This year only one political conference by Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) will be held at Damdama Sahib. SAD (Badal) has decided to give it a miss this time owing to Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll preparations, besides stating that farmers are reeling under crop losses due to untimely rain. Congress and AAP had stopped organising political conferences from 2018 onwards after an appeal by Akal Takht Jathedar in 2017 to stop organising them at Shaheedi Jor Mela in Fatehgarh Sahib (to observe martyrdom of sons of Guru Gobind Singh). Thereafter, Congress and AAP stopped holding political conferences at all the melas, that is, Maghi mela, Baisakhi mela, Jor mela, etc. According to information available, Damdama Sahib was the last and the most recent one to be recognised as a Takht through a resolution of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in November 1966, a few months after the reorganisation of states under which Punjab became a separate state.