Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act | SC verdict is attack on panth, SAD will call meet: Sukhbir

Sukhbir said “the Congress party had been trying for decades to weaken the SAD as well as Sikh institutions and the 2014 Act forming a separate body to manage gurdwaras in Haryana was part of this strategy”. He said it was “equally condemnable that the Punjab government under [erstwhile CM] Captain Amarinder Singh had taken an anti-SGPC stance in the apex court in this case.” He added, “The last nail was hammered in by the Bhagwant Singh Mann government whose Advocate General gave a written submission against the SGPC in the case”.

Asserting that “the SAD would not tolerate tinkering of a hundred year old Act”, Sukhbir said “the party has called a meeting of senior leaders to decide on the next course of action which could include legal recourse”. He also appealed to all panthic organizations to “unite to defeat the designs of anti-Sikh forces to divide the Sikh community and rule by proxy”.

The SAD chief further said “the country had earlier witnessed how the nature of the elected Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee was changed overnight and taken over”. He also related “how Punjab was already suffering after its river waters were snatched away from it even as it remained without its own capital city of Chandigarh. Now the SGPC has been truncated by recognizing the formation of a separate Committee for Haryana”.

On controversy relating to alleged deplaning of chief minister Bhagwant Mann from an aircraft in Frankfurt, Sukhbir said “the chief minister’s actions have lowered the prestige of Punjab and Punjabis”. Sukhbir said he had “talked to two passengers who were on the same flight as the chief minister to verify the incident. While one of the passengers, an industrialist, was in the first class the other, an hotelier from Rajasthan, was in the business class. Both said that Bhagwant Mann had fallen down on the first seat after entering the aircraft”.

He said “following this the air hostess informed the chief minister about his seat which was a little to the back and that Mann proceeded to his seat swaying from one side to another. Following this the air hostess informed the Captain about the situation and it was the Captain who came to the spot and took the decision to de-board the chief minister”. Asserting that the plane was late as disclosed by Lufthansa, Sukhbir said “Lufthansa has never said that Bhagwant Mann was not drunk and that the de-boarding incident did not take place. In fact the airline has refused to disclose the incident citing privacy laws”. He also questioned “how the chief minister fell ill suddenly after enjoying the comfort of the VIP lounge at the Frankfurt airport for nearly two hours.”

AAP has denied the allegations, terming these as baseless.

SGPC to file review petition in HSGMC case, says Advocate Dhami.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has decided to file a review petition following the Supreme Court judgment Tuesday in the case regarding challenge to validity of Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) Act, 2014.

This decision was taken in the SGPC executive committee (EC) meeting at Sri Guru Ramdas Medical College in Amritsar which was presided over by the committee president advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami.

After the meeting, Harjinder Singh Dhami said that a consensus has reached to file a review petition in the Supreme Court for that the officials of SGPC have been deputed at Delhi. He said the next legal action will be taken as per the opinion of the senior lawyers after examining the Supreme Court’s order.

The SGPC president said: “It is not right to comment on the Supreme Court’s judgment, but the move played by the then Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to form a separate Gurdwara management committee for Haryana is dividing the Sikh power.” “Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is a part of Congress class that massacred Sikhs, but it is sad that the incumbent BJP government also followed the same footsteps and became partners in breaking the foremost representative institution of Sikhs. The politics of breaking up SGPC and dividing Sikh power is not right and the governments should not interfere in Sikh issues”, said Harjinder Singh Dhami.