As the row over creating a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for Haryana refused to subside, the Sikhs’ highest temporal seat — Akal Takht — has stepped in.
Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh has “invited” Sikh leaders from Haryana — Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Didar Singh Nalvi, who are leading the campaign in the State to have its own, separate body to manage Sikh affairs — to meet him on Wednesday.
Sources told The Pioneer that the two leaders have not been summoned by the Akal Takht but were “invited” by the Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh to discuss the issue and resolve it amicably.
The development is significant as the Shiromani Akali Dal-led SGPC, a day before, had maintained that it would knock the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to stop the Congress-led Haryana Government for creating a separate Gurdwara committee. SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar had hinted at the intervention of the Akal Takht in the matter.
The issue that was raised, over a month back, by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda by giving an assurance to the State’s Sikh population to set up separate SGPC for the State, has now snowballed into a major controversy.
All eyes are now stuck on July 6 “Kaithal sammelan” organized where Hooda is expected to take the final call on the issue.
At the same time, the SAD, and its related organizations, are making every possible to stop the Hooda Government from taking any such decision, allegedly “aimed at dividing the Sikh community”.
The Akali Dal has even taken up the matter with the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Considering the claims of Haryana Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, a Sikh, that the State Government Committee to look into the demand for a separate SGPC in the State had received over 2.5 lakh affidavits in its support, the BJP at the Centre could not ignore the demand being heard loud and clear from Haryana with elections just about four months away.
Seeing the issue blowing out of proportion, the Akal Takht on Tuesday initiated an effort to resolve the “complex” issues of separate religious panel for Haryana Gurudwaras.
“The Sikh leaders leading the campaign in Haryana have been called for the meeting. It is not summons. All the pros and cons of this issue will be discussed in detail. Besides, asking them not to make any attempt to divide the Sikh community by indulging in such activities,” said a SGPC member.
It is understood that in case, Jhinda and Nalvi refused to bow down to the Akal Takht, it may initiate action against them.
Akal Takht is also expected to call Haryana Finance Minister Harmohinder Singh Chattha who has maintained that separate committee was the right of Haryana Sikhs.
The move for a separate Sikh body is said to have a bearing on assembly segments in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal, Sirsa and Fatehabad districts, where Sikhs have a considerable population.
HARYANA GURDWARA PANEl FlOWS FROM REORGANISATION ACT
Trashing SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar’s argument that demand for separate Haryana Gurdwara management committee was illegal, Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday maintained that it came from the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966.
Bajwa advised Makkar to read carefully Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, under which Haryana had been created to meet the Akali Dal demand of a Punjabi speaking state from which this demand flows.
SEHAJDHARIS SEEK REPRESENTATION IN HARYANA SGPC
A delegation of Sehajdhari Sikh Party (SSP), led by its national president Dr Paramjeet Singh Ranu, handed over a memorandum to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for inclusion of Sehajdhari Sikhs in the proposed Bill to set up separate body to manage sikh shrines in Haryana. The party claimed that the inclusion of Sehajdharis is their “legal right” as they were well defined and recognized as a part of the Sikh Community under the law from pre-independence since 1944 according to the Sikh Gurudwara Act 1925.