Akal Takht panel's delegate meet: SGPC puts ball in Takht jathedar's court

Hindustan Times

5 hours ago

In a fix over the Takht-appointed panel's request to hold a delegate session at its headquarters, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has asked jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj to take a final call on the issue. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has asked jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj to take a final call on the issue.
The Takht-appointed panel, which is to oversee the reorganisation of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), as per the mandate pronounced during the December 2 decree last year from the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs by clergy, had announced their delegate session on August 11 at Teja Singh Samundri Hall, headquarters of the gurdwara body. The five-member panel, including Iqbal Singh Jhudan, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Manpreet Singh Ayali, Santa Singh Umaidpuri and Satwant Kaur, conducted a parallel membership drive and is now geared up to hold elections of party president and other office-bearers.
However, the request has Badal-controlled SGPC in a fix. Sukhbir Singh Badal-led SAD camp, which never accepted the decree in totality, had conducted its delegate meeting on April 12 at the SGPC headquarters.
SGPC dilemma stems from two factors, one, how will the Sukhbir-led camp in the gurdwara body react to giving 'rebel' leaders space and secondly, not allowing it will be viewed as a defiance to the Takht's December 2 decree.
Trying to wriggle out of the situation, the SGPC chief secretary, Kulwant Singh Manan, has written a letter to Akal Takht jathedar requesting him to issue directions from the highest Sikh temporal seat in this regard. The written request of the Akal Takht panel was also forwarded to the jathedar.
Sources, privy to the development, confirmed the communication sent by the SGPC. When contacted, Manan neither confirmed nor denied sending a letter to Akal Takht but said: 'The panel will get an answer in two to three days.'
This matter was to be deliberated in the Sikh clergy meeting on August 1. But it was deferred to August 6 after the brother-in-law of jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj passed away.
While awarding tankhah (religious punishment) to Sukhbir Singh Badal and other party leaders for the mistakes committed by the party and its government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017 on complaint of rebels, the Akal Takht had on December 2 last year stated that the SAD leadership had lost the moral right to give political patronage to the Sikh Panth because of their 'sins'.
The Sukhbir camp had initiated its recruitment drive, citing legalities, a move termed as a violation of the Takht's decree. Akal Takht then jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh had given Takht-appointed panel nod in February to start a recruitment drive.