The political battle over a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Haryana has turned into a war of printed words with both Amritsar-based SAD-led SGPC and newly-formed Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) using all forms of media to put their views across.
Both the Sikh bodies have been issuing advertisements after advertisements not just to launch a scathing attack on the other side, but also to clarify their own position in the contentious matter that has already snowballed into a major controversy.
The two Sikh bodies has now shifted the battleground to the publications and the virtual world, and fighting it out in the ad world.
Days after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-led SGPC flooded the newspapers, especially vernaculars, and websites with the half-page ads targeting the newly-created HSGMC and blaming the Congress party for dividing the Sikh community, Haryana Sikh affairs body on Tuesday too come out with “huge ads” highlighting SGPC-Amritsar’s “blatant lie” and their “truth”.
The HSGMC’s ads also alleged SGPC of “wasting money from Guru ki Golak (gurdwara funds) on advertisements based on wrong facts”.
SGPC’s ads, published in the papers previous week, described SGPC as the “supreme representative body of the Sikhs and is recognised as such all over the world”, and termed the separate gurudwara act, a “Congress conspiracy to divide Sikhs”.
The ad also gave points on the aim of establishing SGPC, struggle for Sikh Gurudwara 1925 Act, the Tara Singh-Nehru Pact, and the Punjab re-Organisation Act,1966. It also explained that the power, to make laws, rests with the Centre, and also threw light on instances of “interference in religious affairs of Sikhs to usurp Sikh Gurudwaras by Congress government”.
Another ad, posted on a website, termed the HSGMC as “unconstitutional”, and a “big fraud” by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Haryana government with the Sikhs.
The ad alleged that the Haryana government passed a “Money Bill” in the State Assembly, according to which the State Government would have a direct control on the donations, assets and management of Sikh shrines.
“Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill 2014 was a Money Bill which meant the State Government would have all the rights on the ‘golak’ or remittances, properties and financial accounts of the Gurdwaras, and the entire collection would be routed to the State exchequer,” it alleged.
Coming out with the explanation on the same, HSGMC on Tuesday issued ads highlighting how the SGPC was making “heinous attempt to mislead Sikh community by provoking their sentiments”, and creating animosity between Sikhs of Haryana and Punjab.
HSGMC, in its ad, claimed that Golak income and any other income from gurdwara properties would be deposited in gurdwara fund to be managed by HSGMC.
Also listing relevant sections of the Act, the ad made it clear that Haryana government has “nothing to do with the golak and other gurdwara income and gurdwara properties”. Section 25 of the Act added that the same would be under the “direct control of Haryana Sikh Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee”.
Giving salient features of the Act, HSGMC as stated that the Act has been formed on the same “pattern and principles” as per 1925’s Sikh Gurdwara Act. Section 28 maintained that transparency in all aspects would be maintained as the income and expenditure accounts will be prepared on monthly-basis and pasted on gurudwaras’ notice boards.
The ad also clarified that money from gurdwara golaks and other properties would “not be used for any political purpose by any political party or by anyone”, as stated in Section 26 of the Act.
As the situation has reached a flashpoint between the two Sikh bodies with the Punjab and the Centre on one side and Haryana on the other, the Akal Takht — Sikhs’ highest temporal seat — has stepped in asking the two to maintain status quo.
Punjab’s ruling SAD has all along been opposing the Haryana government’s “politically motivated” move to set up separate SGPC for the State to woo the Sikh voters just before Assembly polls.