The controversy over setting up of a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Haryana has refused to die down. The latest salvo was fired by Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday who questioned Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s opposition to the move.
“If the Sikhs in Haryana are now seeking autonomy for running their Gurdwaras, what is wrong in itIJ” he asked, while supporting the creation of a separate body for Sikhs in Haryana.
Amritsar MP, in a statement, said: “There is a section within the Akali-controlled SGPC which favours autonomy to Haryana Sikhs in running their Gurdwaras...sooner or later this is going to happen and it would be better if it is done now.”
Alleging Badal of adopting “double standards”, he asked the Chief Minister why he was opposing the creation of a separate body for Sikhs in Haryana when all the members from there in the current SGPC belonged to his party.
“This should reassure you (Badal) that your party can get majority in Haryana body also,” he said.
Capt Amarinder said that there was nothing wrong in forming a separate Haryana SGPC when there were similar committees already existing at places like Delhi, Patna and Maharashtra.
“This only betrays Badal’s characteristic insecurity that he does not want to concede or share power with anyone else other than his close family,” he observed.
He said that it was people like Badals who were responsible for the creation of Haryana out of Punjab. “It was people like Badal who had spearheaded the campaign for a separate Punjabi Suba (State) that led to creation of Haryana as also Himachal Pradesh. If the Sikhs in Haryana are now seeking autonomy for running their Gurdwaras, instead of being remotely controlled by Badal and his stooges, what is wrong in itIJ” he asked.
Badal, along with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MPs, took the row over setting up of separate SGPC for Haryana to the Delhi Durbar seeking Centre’s intervention to stop the move initiated by Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government.
Badal alleged that Hooda-led Congress Government in Haryana was taking the initiative with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections and the Centre must ensure by enacting a law that SGPC remains the only organisation to look after the religious affairs of Sikhs.
Hooda had raised a dust of controversy after announcing that the party Haryana would hold a sammelan in Kaithal, where a majority of Sikhs in Haryana are concentrated, on July 6 to garner support to fulfil the Sikhs’ long pending demand for a separate SGPC.