Sehajdhari issue: SAD holds core panel meet

“The whole voter list for SGPC has to be prepared again as the earlier voter listed that barred Sehajdhari Sikhs from voting stands null and void. There are more than 85 per cent of Sehajdhari Sikhs around the globe within the Sikh community. And there had been an attempt to create a minority within minority by notification issued in 2003,” Sehajdhari Sikh Federation cheif Paramjeet Singh Ranu told The Indian Express.

“The development today that coincides with Parkash Utsav (of Guru Granth Sahib) was symbolic to convey that Gurus also believed that Sehajdhari Sikhs are very much part of Sikhism,the fact that remained there for 60 years before the voting rights of Sikhs were withdrawn in 2003,” Ranu said.

Meanwhile,SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the 2003 notification had been withdrawn by the Centre to “derail the SGPC poll process”.

“If government deemed it appropriate that notification had been wrongly issued,why did it not mention the same while issuing notification for SGPC polls in August,” Cheema asked.

The notification was issued after SGPC passed a resolution in 2001 to debar the Sehjadhari Sikhs from voting in the polls and sought amendment in the Sikh Gurdwara Act.

Ranu had been maintaining that no amendment can be made in the Sikh Gurdwara Act by mere notification.

SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar called the withdrawal of notification by Union government as a “direct interference” in the affairs of Sikhs.

“It is direct interference in the religious affairs of Sikhs. After the notification was issued in 2003,SGPC polls were held in 2004 keeping in view the said notification. What was the need to withdraw the notification after eight years and when SGPC elections had been held on that basis once. And when the SGPC poll process was in its last legs,” Makkar told The Indian Express.

“There is no definition of Sehajdhari Sikhs in Sikhism,” Makkar added.