The ruling Congress in Haryana has once again raised the contentious issue of formation of separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in the state on Friday at Sirsa eyeing the upcoming Assembly elections.
Haryana Pradesh Congress committee president Ashok Tanwar raised the issue while addressing the party workers’ meeting at Sirsa and requested Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was sharing the dais, to form a separate Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee.Hooda said, “A concrete decision would be taken on the formation of a separate Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) in the State keeping in view the larger interest of the Sikh community residing here.”
According to sources, Haryana Congress has raised this issue intentionally, to score brownie points in the upcoming state assembly elections. Congress led Hooda government had already lost the recent lok-Sabha elections in Haryana and now it is trying to exploit the faith of the Sikh voters in the state.The State Government invited affidavits from the people of Sikh community, residing in the state, on this matter and a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Finance Minister, Harmohinder Singh Chattha. The committee had already submitted its report to the state government.
“A decision would be taken soon after seeking legal opinions on this issue”, added Hooda.
However, Jagdish Singh Jhinda, president of ad hoc committee for Haryana Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, who has been raising the issue of formation of separate SGPC in the state, termed this move of the state government as an eyewash. Jhinda said that the state government is bringing up the issue intentionally to secure Sikh votes in the upcoming assembly elections.
There are around 12 lakh Sikh voters in the State and majority of the Sikh population resides in Sirsa, Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal lok Sabha constituencies. Besides, in the 24 Vidhan Sabha constituencies across the State, the Sikh population is divided between 15 to 60 thousand and Congress-led Hooda Government wants to get these votes at any cost.
“More than 2.75 lakh Sikh people of Haryana submitted their affidavits to the state government to form separate SGPC, and the issue was discussed in the state assembly on March 15, 2007 in which 81 MlAs supported the move. Despite all of these proceedings, no steps have been taken yet,” said Jhinda.