Role of Sardar Mangal Singh
Another section of the Sikhs under the leadership of Sardar Mangal Singh took stand in favour of the report. Both the sides were so rigid in their views that attempts at rapprochement failed. The debate continued, Master Tara Singh claimed that the League would decide in favour of his stand on the Nehru Report, which proved true subsequently. In 1928, an all parties Sikh conference was held at Shahid Sikh Missionary College, Amritsar, it was agreed that if the conference endorsed the recommendations of the Nehru Committee, Master Tara Singh would resign from the editorship of daily Akali and if the conference supported the stand taken by Master Tara Singh, then Sardar Mangal Singh would have to relinquish the editorship of Urdu Akali in favour of Master Tara Singh. In the conference Baba Gurdit Singh Kamagata Maru, Sardar Amar Singh Jhabal and Giani Hira Singh Dard justified the action of Sardar Mangal Singh while Sardar Gopal Singh Quami, Sardar Amar Singh and Baba Kharak Singh sided with Master Tara Singh. Master Tara Singh won with a narrow majority and under the terms of mutual agreement Sardar Mangal Singh resigned. The two leaders parted ways and Sardar Mangal Singh limited himself to the affairs of the Congress party only.
In a telegram to Pandit Motilal Nehru, he regretted that the Congress had ignored the Sikh aspirations. However, he was not ready to breakaway from Congress and said that he would rather secure Sikh rights within the Congress. He wanted to fight for Sikh rights while remaining within it. As an astute politician, it was clear to him that at the all India level he could not protect the rights of the Sikhs without the co-operation of the Congress.
Afterwards, Mangal Singh issued a long statement defending his action that was published in the Tribune. It stated that in signing the Nehru Report he had only followed the policy of the Central Sikh League, that is, the rejection of franchise on the basis of communal representations. Now, when the Nehru Report has rejected the communal representations in Punjab, his colleagues in the Central Sikh League are not supporting it.
Master Tara Singh refuted Mangal Singh's impression that the Central Sikh League or for that matter any other Sikh organisation wanted the abolition of the communal representation only in the Punjab. In every resolution of the Central Sikh League and the All Parties Sikh Conference it was clearly stated that communal representation be abolished throughout the country and not applied selectively. Master Tara Singh also controverted Mangal Singh's contention that the position taken by them was an afterthought. He pointed out that, before Mangal Singh had gone to Allahabad in July 1928 some of them had met together and arrived at the unanimous solution that the present proposal of the Nehru Committee should not be accepted. But on reaching Allahabad, Mangal Singh changed and supported the proposal contained in the Nehru Report whole-heartedly
Read more about this topic: Tara Singh Malhotra, Nehru Report and The Sikhs
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