Santokh Singh is new CKD president

AMRITSAR: After months of controversies, the 115-year-old Sikh charitable institution Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD ) elected its president, vice-president and honorary secretary during the mid-term polls held at Gurdwara Kalgidhar Sahib situated at the CKD’s headquarters here on Sunday.
Dr Santok Singh was elected as the president. He won with a margin of 10 votes and is considered to be close to ousted president Charanjit Singh Chadha who had been actively extending support to Santokh in the run-up to elections.

Santokh polled 152 votes, his nearest rival Shiromani Akali Dal-backed Rajmohinder Singh Majitha bagged 142 votes while the officiating president Dhanraj Singh received only 65 votes.

Sarabjit Singh and Surinder Singh were elected as vice-president and honorary secretary of the institution respectively.

A doctor by profession, Santokh was the CKD vice-president in 2015 but had later resigned due to personal reasons.

Honorary secretary, N S Khurana said a total of 365 out of 511 members had arrived to participate in the voting process and members, including women, with shorn or trimmed hair were not allowed to cast their vote. However, other non-baptized members of the CKD were allowed to cast their votes despite the directions of Akal Takht otherwise.

As the voting began, a few members raised objections to non-baptized members voting but following a meeting between the supporters of all the three main contenders, it was mutually agreed to allow non-baptized members with unshorn hair or beards to cast their votes.

The office of the charitable institution had run into trouble when an objectionable video of Chadha with a woman principle of a CKD-run school had gone viral on December 26th, 2017. Following this, one of the CKD members had lodged complaint with the Akal Takht to summon Chadha and take exemplary religious action against him.

On December 28th, 2017 the Akal Takht had summoned Chadha to appear before the Sikh clergy and in an unprecedented decision, the Akal Takht Jathedar had announced to keep an eye on Chadha’s ‘chaal chalan’ (character) for two years.

The police had also registered a case against him and his son Inderpreet Singh Chadha had later committed suicide.

The elections for the CKD were highly politicized following intervention of both the SAD (B) and the Congress parties extending support to their favourite ‘groups’. The Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal too had issued an appeal to support Majitha.

Talking to TOI Santokh Singh said, “I feel a huge responsibility on my shoulders. I intend to live up to the expectations with support from the entire CKD members”. He said political group-ism was a media creation only. “We are all one in the CKD,” he said.

When asked about his priorities, he said, “The priority is to make education more affordable.”