Other States - Punjab   

Manmohan diffuses stand-off on SGPC issue

CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has succeeded, for the time being, to diffuse the growing tensions in the region especially within the Sikh community and between the Government of Punjab and Haryana over the issue of forming a separate Gurdwara management panel in Haryana.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which is the ruling party in Punjab and controls the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) — the apex body managing the religious affairs of the Sikhs — on Saturday decided to postpone its protest rally scheduled at Karnal on August 30.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister is said to have asked the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to help in ceasing hostilities. The Akali party had threatened agitation if the Haryana shrines were taken out of the SGPC’s ambit.

Announcing the decision to postpone the rally SAD chief, Sukhbir Singh Badal, through a statement here said the Prime Minister had assured his party that the issue would be settled amicably.

The assurance had come when the Akali delegation called on Dr. Singh in New Delhi on Friday to seek his intervention in persuading the Haryana Government against setting up a parallel panel.

According to officials, the Haryana Government has also prevailed upon the rival faction of the Sikh community in that State to postpone their rally also at Karnal on August 30.

This faction has been demanding a separate body, on lines of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and boards in Jammu and Kashmir, Patna and Nanded. Mr. Hooda has issued an appeal to both factions of the Sikh community to ensure that the peaceful atmosphere in the State was not vitiated.

Meanwhile, sources in the Akali Dal said the SGPC would undertake a detailed exercise to ensure greater representation of Sikhs from other states in the overall decision-making process of the organisation as well devise means to allow greater autonomy to local managements.

Secretary of the Akali Dal, Daljit Singh Cheema, who is also the Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister has issued a separate statement to dispel the notion that the SGPC was spending less than it collected from the shrines in Haryana. He said in the last five years, the SGPC had collected nearly Rs.14.63 crore from the 26 shrines under Schedules 85 and 87 of the Gurdwara Act.

However during the same period it spent Rs.27.89 crore on a medical college at Shahbad Markanda, Gurmat Sangeet Academy at Sekhupur, schools, libraries, literature, religious education, buildings of shrines, Guru Ram Das Niwas, transport, salaries of staff, religious films and organising congregations in that State. However, some other Akali factions in Punjab have opposed the interference by the “Badal Akali Dal” and BJP in the religious affairs of the Sikhs in Haryana.

Former Speaker of Punjab Assembly and President of the Akali Dal (1920), Ravi Inder Singh has said both Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh had no locus standi to take up religious issues as they were ‘patit’ (apostates). He said the matter should be decided by the Sikhs of Haryana.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Manmohan diffuses stand-off on SGPC issue
Woman jumps to death from hospital

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu