Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia has given his consent to the controversial Bill allowing the formation of the separate SGPC to manage gurdwaras in Haryana. The Bill was passed by the State Assembly on July 11, the last session of the present House before it goes for elections in October this year.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, “Governor has given his assent to the Bill today. Now the Bill has become an Act.” He said there was no need to send it to the President for approval. Pahadia is completing his tenure this month. With Pahadia’s nod, the Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), has lost control and management of all 52 gurdwaras in Haryana.
Pahadia’s assent has come despite strong protests by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the SGPC against formation of a separate gurdwara panel for Haryana. In its election manifestos for the 2004 and 2009 Assembly polls, Congress had promised separate panel to run the affairs of the State’s gurdwaras.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has warned that creating a separate gurdwara panel in Haryana will tantamount to a third assault on the Sikhs psyche after Operation Bluestar and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Earlier, a delegation of SGPC on Monday, under the leadership of its president Avtar Singh Makkar called on the Haryana Governor and submitted a memorandum saying that the Bill was passed in an unconstitutional manner. The delegation requested the Governor to seek clarification regarding the reserving of the Bill for Presidential assent.
Talking to mediapersons outside the Governor House, Makkar termed the Bill as “a blatant constitutional transgression” and “a brazen interference in Sikh religious affairs”.
In their memorandum, the SGPC delegation maintained that a state Vidhan Sabha had “no legislative competence “to pass a bill on a subject which is governed by an Act of the Parliament. Describing the Bill as “unconstitutional and blatant interference in Sikh affairs”, the delegation requested the Governor to “seek clarification regarding the reserving of the Bill for Presidential assent”.
“Even after the partition of India, the Gurdwaras which fell in the undivided State of Punjab and PEPSU have continuously been under the jurisdiction of the SGPC by virtue of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925. This scope of jurisdiction has been preserved even after the territorial bifurcation of the State in November, 1966 by according SGPC the status of an Inter-State Body Corporate.” the memorandum said. Education Minister and party secretary Daljit Singh Cheema and SAD General Secretary Harcharan Singh Bains were also present in the delegation.