Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday formed a seven-member committee to hold discussions with the Union Government to facilitate restoration of the Guru Ravisas Temple at New Delhi’s Tughlaqabad to the satisfaction of the Ravidasia community.
As per the decision, taken during a meeting of SAD’s Scheduled Caste Wing, presided over by party president Sukhbir Badal, on Wednesday, the committee would hold talks with the representatives of the Union Government who have been deputed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resolve the issue.
The development has come days after the SAD president and Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal met the Union Home Minister to urge him to sympathetically consider the demand of the Ravidasia community to reconstruct the Temple at its original location in Tughlaqabad.
The seven-member panel, including Punjab Vidhan Sabha’s former Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, former ministers Gulzar Singh Ranike and Sohan Singh Thandal, former MLA Nirmal Singh and MLAs Pawan Kumar Tinu, Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi and Baldev Khara, will meet the Central Government representatives to hold discussions on restoration of Guru Ravidas ji temple on Thursday.
Earlier, during the meeting, senior dalit leaders maintained that there was an overwhelming feeling amongst the community that the temple should be restored in all its glory at the same site. They said that the site, where the temple stood before it was demolished, held deep ‘aastha’ for the community. “We would urge the Union Government to keep this in mind while taking a decision on the matter,” said SAD’s dalit leader.
Sukhbir said that the SAD would abide with the decision taken by the seven member delegation as well as the larger Ravidasia community.