Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who has all along been making every possible effort to prevent setting up of separate Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Haryana, on Sunday described Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress Government’s move as a “third major assault of the Congress against the Sikh community”.
Terming the Haryana government’s move to create a separate body to manage Sikh affairs in the state as a “cheap step aimed at scoring brownie points in media”, Badal blamed the Congress party for “irrelevantly meddling in the religious affairs of the Sikhs”.
He equated the Congress party’s move with the “tyrannical Mughal rule”. “The Congress party is walking on the footsteps of tyrannical Mughal rule to weaken the Sikh power. After Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh riots of 1984, this is the third major assault of Congress against the Sikh community,” he said while interacting with the media during his tour to a drug de-addiction centre in Patiala.
The Chief Minister said that by taking this step, the Congress party has inflicted a serious blow to the Sikh psyche “as none of the true Sikhs wants any separate committee for the management of Gurudwaras”.“Though the Haryana Government is completely incompetent to enact this separate committee, it has taken this step just for political gains. This politically motivated step of the Haryana Congress would not succeed as the party would be completely routed in the coming assembly polls in the state,” said Badal.
He said: “I firmly believe that the Congress would never succeed in its nefarious designs to divide the Sikh community and this Committee will never come into existence,” he added.The five-time Chief Minister went on to blame the state Congress’ leaders - former Chief Minister and Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa - for acting “as a tool to weaken the Sikh power”.“The worst thing is that even leaders like lok Sabha MP Capt Amarinder Singh and state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa are justifying the decision of their party instead of showing resentment against this irrelevant and unnecessary action of the Haryana Congress Government,” he said.
Badal said that these leaders have apparently forgotten the countless sacrifices made by the Sikhs for forming the SGPC. “For the sake of their narrow political gains, these leaders have become a puppet in the hands of their party high command and are acting as a tool to weaken the power of Sikhs and are bent hell upon to tarnish the glorious legacy of Sikh panth,”he added.