Badals to meet PM to stop creation of separate panel.
Haryana’s decision to break away from the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandak Committee (SGPC) and constitute its own committee has rattled the Akali Dal leadership in Punjab. Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal have decided to urge prime minister Manmohan Singh to restrain Haryana.
The Haryana Congress had, in its election manifesto, promised to form a separate gurdwara management committee as Haryana’s Sikhs “were feeling discriminated against by the SGPC”. Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s announcement last Friday ruffled many a feather in Punjab.
The SGPC manages 25 gurdwaras in Haryana, earning Rs10 crore in revenue from them annually. The gurudwaras came under SGPC control under the all-India Singh Gurdwara Act, 1925, which the Centre passed after a prolonged agitation by the Akali Dal. Senior Akali leaders say Haryana cannot break away from the SGPC unless parliament amends the Gurdwara Act.
Haryana, however, says it was free to go its way.
Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal said setting up a separate committee for Haryana’s Sikhs will have dangerous consequences. He will meet Manmohan Singh on Monday to seek his intervention. “How will Sikhs tolerate another injustice in religious matters by the Congress government at the Centre, which has been discriminating against this community for the past many decades,” Badal asked.
SGPC and other Sikh leaders from Punjab had met the PM three months ago when it became clear that Haryana was heading towards a separate SGPC. Soon after coming to power, Hooda had set up a three-member committee led by cabinet minister HS Chatha to study the possibility of a separate Sikh body. Based on over 1.25 lakh affidavits from Sikhs in Haryana, the committee submitted a report in February, following which the government formed a three-member committee under the advocate-general to facilitate its implementation.
The demand first arose when seven Haryana members of the 170-seat strong SGPC, alleged that the state’s historical gurdwaras were being neglected “even though they were adding Rs10 crore in the SGPC’s kitty every year”.
SOS to PM
SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar has told the PM that “the Haryana CM’s unconstitutional declaration” would have serious religio-political repercussions.
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