Day after SGPC polls,gurdwara election panel mum on violations

Gurdwara Election Commission Chief Commissioner Justice (retd) H S Brar refused to comment and officials in his office said he will be speaking to the media only on Tuesday.

The election commission had given clear directives that only Keshdhari Sikhs would be allowed to vote but the polls on Sunday saw Patits and Sehajdharis casting vote in large numbers,including Badal village in Muktsar district,home to the ruling family of Badals.

Besides bogus voting,there were also reports of booth capturing from Giderbaha where the Akali Dal candidate seems to have won the election.

There were reports of bogus voting from Gurdaspur where Cabinet minister Sucha Singh Langah and Sewa Singh Sekhawan fought the elections. Also,non-Keshdharies voted in Jalandhar,Kapurthala,Ludhiana,Tarn Taran and Mohali.

In many places,the staff on election duty said they could not stop Patits and Sehajdharis from voting as their names figured on the voters list.

People’s Party of Punjab president Manpreet Singh Badal said the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal should not have resorted to such tactics as it already knew that it would win the elections comfortably in the absence of any real opposition.

“But still Patits and Sehajdharis openly voted across the state and there were incidents of violence. Only in about 15 seats they had a tough opposition but still such incidents took place. The government should fix responsibility for all this and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should take the blame for all this and resign,’’ Manpreet said.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Amarinder blamed the father-son duo—Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal—for unleashing violence and said it was blot on the face of Akali Dal and its leadership.

“They tried to undermine and blemish the sacred sanctity of the institution. If the Akalis were so confident about victory in these elections why did they resort to violence and intimidation of the voters. They created such a hype about these elections that at the end of the day they started feeling scared and insecure and thus used and abused all the resources available to them including the government machinery,particularly the Punjab Police,” he said.

On August 24,Gurdwara Election Commission had declared that it had received complaints that non-Keshdhari people were added on to the voters list. “If any other person besides a Keshdhari votes in the SGPC election,he will be arrested and action will be taken against officials concerned by the commission.”

The commission had also said all returning officers and polling staff will have to identify that the person is Keshdhari and only then,issue the ballot paper. “If they violate the rules,disciplinary action will be taken against them.”

Violence was also reported from various parts of the state,including a shooting incident at Kariawala village,when some persons fired while trying to capture booths 70 to 77.

Panthic Morcha supporter Charan Singh was injured in the firing that led to cancellations of polls.

Police have registered a case again Panthic Morcha candidate Mahaim Singh and Charan Singh too.

No action on bogus voters

Despite photographs of ‘Patit Sikhs’ (people with trimmed beard and hair) casting their votes for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections on Sunday being published,the Gurdwara Election Commission is yet to take any action for violating its directive.

The Gurdwara Election Commission had directed that only Keshdhari Sikhs (those with unshorn hair) can vote in the SGPC elections and anyone else found trying to cast their ballot would face arrest.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president P S Sarna said what happened in the SGPC elections,including Patits casting their votes openly,happened on the behest of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Sarna said they had demanded that voter identity cards be issued and also record to identify bogus voters but the election commission had ignored these demands. “While favouring Badal,the Gurdwara Election Commission violated the sanctity of free and fair elections,” he alleged. Sarna said the election commission should have taken suo moto action after seeing the photographs.