The dust of controversy raised in the neighbouring State of Haryana over the setting up separate Gurdwara management committee has virtually turned into a storm in Punjab with both the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress party involved in a slanging match.
Deputy leader of the Congress party in the lok Sabha and Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday accused the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of not willing to “part with the huge resources” that the Gurdwaras generate in Haryana.Capt Amarinder said that Haryana is a separate State like Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra which have their own bodies for managing the Gurdwaras. “When those States can have their own bodies to manage their Gurdwaras why not HaryanaIJ” he asked, questioning “or simply because Badal does not want to part with the huge resources the Gurdwaras generate there”.
Haryana Government is mulling to setup a separate Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to manage affairs of Gurdwaras in the State.A day after Badal attacked his predecessor for backing the Haryana Government on the move, Capt Amarinder slammed the Chief Minister for “trying to distort facts”.Capt Amarinder, in a statement, said, “Badal is trying to distort facts as it is not the Congress which wants a separate SGPC for Haryana, but the Sikhs of the State who have every right to manage the affairs of their religious places instead of being remote controlled by people like Badal.”
Senior Congress leader said that the reason and logic for a separate Haryana SGPC was similar as argued by him and his ilk during the Punjabi suba (State) movement. “You wanted a separate State where Sikhs had a majority which ultimately led to the creation of Haryana, and now if the Sikhs there want autonomy for running their own Gurdwaras what is wrong in thatIJ” he asked, saying that denying them this right was absolutely unjustified.
lashing out at Capt Amarinder, Badal, a day before at Batala, had said: “People, for their vested interests and to divide and weaken the Sikh community, were supporting the sinister move of the Haryana Government to constitute a separate Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.”Badal had stated that the Congress leader was “not aware” of the supreme sacrifices made by Sikhs during the British rule for constitution of the Amritsar-based SGPC.
Contesting the claims made by some Haryana Congress leaders that more than two lakh affidavits had been received in support of separate SGPC for Haryana, Badal had claimed that “even the Sikhs of Haryana were against this politically motivated move of the Congress Government”.Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has called a Sikh convention at Kaithal on July 6 where he is expected to take the final call on setting up the separate Sikh body.
At present, Haryana Government is studying the legal and religious provisions for setting up the separate body, the Chief Minister had said.SGPC, popularly known as the Sikhs’ mini parliament, manages around 70 Gurdwaras in Haryana. It also controls a majority of Gurdwaras in Punjab, including the holiest of Sikh shrines Harmandir Sahib (popularly known as Golden Temple) in Amritsar, as well as Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. leaders of the SGPC and Akali Dal had met union Home Minister Rajnath Singh last week to urge the Centre to stop the Haryana Government from announcing a separate Gurdwara body.
