The resolution was passed at a meeting of the core committee chaired by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal. (Rana Simranjit Singh)
The Shiromani Akali Dal Monday passed a resolution against Punjab government endorsing in Supreme Court the setting up of a separate Sikh religious body for Haryana.
The Akali Dal described the move as “ the continuation of the old and deep-rooted conspiracies by the enemies of the Khalsa Panth to strike at the sources of the spiritual strength of the Sikh quom (community) by weakening, dissolving or grabbing the control of the supreme Sikh religious parliament, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).”
The resolution was passed at a meeting of the core committee chaired by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal here.
Through a separate resolution, the party decided to submit a memorandum to Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore drawing his attention to “the fact that the state government’s fresh affidavit (in the apex court) is not only a U-turn on the affidavit submitted earlier but was also fraught with serious consequences as it amounted to a brazen interference in the religious affairs of the Khalsa Panth.”
“The Sikhs are opposed to the attempts at Balkanisation of their religious supreme elected religious institution, the SGPC,” party spokesperson Harcharan Singh Bains said in a statement.
He further said that the core committee has also decided to ask the Governor “to intervene in the highly sensitive case pertaining to the death of a key witness in the Behbal Kalan” sacrilege case under mysterious circumstances.
“The party would draw the attention of the Governor to the allegations levelled by the wife of the deceased witness against two Congress leaders, chief minister’s advisor Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon and Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar. The party demands immediate sacking of Kangar and Dhillon for their dubious role in insulting and putting pressure on the family [of] the prime witness,” Bains said, adding that the core committee has demanded that inquiry in the case be handed over to the CBI.
Bains said that the death of the key witness had exposed the “Congress conspiracy” behind the series of sacrileges in the state. “Cases of sacrilege were a part of a deep rooted conspiracy to defame the SAD-BJP government by its political opponents. Fresh layers of that conspiracy are now coming to light,” he said.
The resolution against “the Congress government’s interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs” said that “the fresh affidavit of the Punjab government over the setting up of a separate Sikh religious body in Haryana is clearly aimed at striking at the roots of the community’s spiritual fountainheads”.
The Akali Dal warned Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh that “his attempts to secure the fulfillment of the old Congress dream against the Khalsa Panth will meet the same fate that his aborted move to grab control of the SGPC in 2002 had met”.
“The Sikh quom will give a befitting response to this latest chapter of the conspiracy of the enemies of the community,” it further said.
“Amarinder is determined to undo the fruits of the supreme sacrifices of the Khalsa Panth, which saw such historic landmarks as Jaitu ka Morcha and other movements, for earning the right to manage their own gurdwaras through their elected religious representatives. This is an arrangement unique to the Khalsa Panth…Even the ancestors of the former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had courted arrest in the movement,” the resolution said, adding that Mahatma Gandhi had described the success of the movement as “the first victory in India’s struggle for freedom.”
“But the Rajwaadas , who had sided with the British and with the Mahants always stood opposed to the Sikh movement as well as to Mahatma Gandhi. The affidavit is in line with that old princely mindset and it fits also into the Congress conspiracies against the Sikhs,” Bains said while briefing about the resolution.
The Akali Dal pointed out that the new affidavit in Supreme Court is “legally and constitutionally weird in that it runs directly opposite to the state government’s earlier affidavit on this issue which had opposed the breaking up of the SGPC with a separate religious body in Haryana,” Bains said.
The spokesperson further added that the SAD has decided to highlight “these issues” along with the “hardships being faced by the people as well as the betrayal by the Congress government on all the promises made under oath by Amarinder Singh”.
He said the party will hold rallies at Amritsar on February 11, Ferozepur on February 25 and Anandpur Sahib on the occasion of the Holla Mohalla on March 9.