Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Bibi Jagir Kaur on Saturday announced the formation of Shiromani Akali Panth Board to liberate the “panthik institutions from the monopoly of one family”.
“In 1920s, the SGPC got freed the gurdwaras from the control of the Mahants. Now the time has come to make the SGPC free from the excessive political interference,” Kaur said, while the Shiromani Akali Dal and its chief Sukhbir Badal’s family. Kaur, however, didn’t name Sukhbir.
Announcing the Panth Board, Kaur said it will play a leading role in restoring the ancient glory of Sikh religious bodies by contesting the SGPC elections. It will focus on making SGPC an autonomous body and on appointment of Akal Takht jathedar.
She was addressing a gathering at an event in memory of Sant Prem Singh Muralewale in the Begowal area of Kapurthala district.
Kaur was expelled from the Akali Dal last year after she announced to contest the elections to the post of SGPC president. She had claimed that an ‘envelope culture’ prevailed in the SGPC where Badal family sends the name of their choice for the president’s post for the apex gurdwara body.
In her address, Kaur said the SGPC was formed on November 15, 1920 to free the gurdwaras from the Mahants (religious head). A month after that, on December 14, 1920, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was formed so that it could help the SGPC “but unfortunately, the political party has made SGPC, a supreme body of the Sikh panth, its own wing”.
She said that during the last 25 years, there has been a drastic decline in the SGPC operations and several Sikh scholars have distanced themselves from it.
Kaur, who remained SGPC president for three terms, said said that SAD leaders, who wield control over the SGPC, have embarrassed the Sikh community on many occasions with their decisions on issues pertaining to the community.
Paying tribute to those who were killed in 1984 during operation ‘Blue Star’ at Golden Temple, she said that Panth Board will protect all the Sikh bodies. It will also work for the release of Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners who have completed their term but are still languishing in jails).
Kaur said it will be the duty of the Panth Board to preserve Sikh heritage and for this purpose a Sikh Heritage Commission will also be formed.
As per the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, the executive body of the SGPC, the president and other office bearers have to be elected every year. A total of 170 SGPC members are elected by voters while another 15 are co-opted. Thus a total of 185 members have voting rights in SGPC presidential polls. Though polling to elect SGPC members is to be done after every five years, but no such election has taken place after 2011. Of the total 185 members, at least 26 have died over the past one decade and another two had resigned ahead of last year’s Vidhan Sabha polls.
While Kaur is not associated with any party after her expulsion from the Akali Dal, she had extended conditional support to the BJP ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll last month. While praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi — she said the Sikh community across the world is indebted to him for celebrating Gurpurab of Tegh Bahadur at Red Fort and for opening the Kartarpur Corridor — she had placed several demands including naming the New Delhi Airport after Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur, compensation and rehabilitation for victims of 1984 riots, compensation for families of terrorism victims, and a national-level institute or university in Baba Banda Singh Bahadur’s name in New Delhi.
