RaGa gets SGPC snub on Golden Temple visit

Amritsar: Before the Punjab leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to the Golden Temple, in a saffron turban, signature half-sleeves white Polo T-shirt, and long beard. This time, he found the doors open, but no one from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) or its security task force came to him for the customary welcome and protection.
After landing at Amritsar, he checked into a hotel, where a Congressman reportedly tied the turban around his head before Rahul reached the Golden Temple under heavy security. Till Tuesday morning,the local party unit and police had no idea of this visit. Rahul spent a an hour or so at the Golden Temple and listened to 10 minutes of kirtan inside the sanctum sanctorum before doing circumambulation (parikrama) and collecting parshad.
MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, former MLA Sunil Dutti, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and state leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa were with him. By having the state Congress leadership in tow and skipping the city’s other landmarks such as Jallianwala Bagh, Durgiana Temple, and Bhagwan Valmiki Teerth, he indicated that his engagement also had political objectives.
Around 4pm, he took a flight out of Amritsar. Explaining this visit, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla said Rahul had come to seek Guru’s blessings like a common devotee. Ex-MLA Dutti said Rahul’s visit was an indicator of the party’s secular views. Rahul had last visited the Golden Temple on January 27, 2022, to start the Punjab election campaign. During a previous visit on April 13, 2019, he had reached the shrine close to midnight and paid obeisance at Darshani Deori (main entrance of the sanctum sanctorum), but the doors were closed for ‘sewa’.