SAD expels former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur over ‘anti-party activities’

It needs to be mentioned that Sarchand Singh was the former spokesperson of Sikh religious organisation Damdami Taksal and also the media advisor of former SAD minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia and he joined the BJP in January this year. Majithia is brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The whole controversy started when Kaur announced that she would again contest for the post of the SGPC president and that the “liifafa’ culture of the SAD, in which the name of the SGPC president comes in an envelope from the SAD president’s house, should end”.

Maluka said, “when Kaur started meeting SGPC members in connection with her SGPC president’s election, we finally declared our candidate on November 4 and he is the sitting SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami. Elections for this SGPC president’s post are due on November 9. We tried to persuade her and our two senior members Daljit Singh Cheema and Surjit Singh Rakhra even met her personally, but to no avail. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal too requested her personally. We even told her that she can contest next year. But, when she continued with anti-party activities, a collective decision was taken to expel her from the party .”

Jagir Kaur, who served as the SGPC president in 1999-2000, 2004-05 and 2020-21, stated Sunday she wanted to free the SGPC from political influence.

Jagir Kaur, who joined the SAD in 1995, won the Assembly polls from the Bholath constituency of Kapurthala district three times — 1997, 2002 and 2012. A mathematics teacher, she also served as a cabinet minister in the Badal government.

She ran into controversy over her alleged involvement in the murder of her daughter in April 2000 and in November, 2000, she had to resign from the post of SGPC president. She was later sentenced to five years. In December 2018, she was acquitted of all charges. Without making any reference of the the murder incident, Maluka and Valtoha said,” Akali Dal had to listen a lot due to her in the past and still we kept on defending her.”

The SGPC general body meeting will be held in Amritsar on November 9 to elect the president, senior vice-president, junior vice-president and 11 executive members. However, the election would be held only for the post of president as Jagir Kaur had started doing meetings with the SGPC members on her own. As of now, the contest will be between Dhami and Jagir Kaur.

As per the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, the SGPC president and other office-bearers have to be elected every year.

The SGPC as of now has around 157 valid voters who are the committee’s members in Punjab and other parts of India. There used to be around 180 members, out of which 26 died and a few are in foreign countries, said Maluka. Historically, the SGPC president has always been backed by the SAD and Maluka said, “always, more than 100 members have voted in favour of SAD-supported candidates..”

Reacting to the allegations, BJP Punjab chief spokesperson Anil Sarin said,”Akali Dal should introspect as it is its internal matter and it should stop blaming the BJP for all their problems. The BJP has no role in the SGPC polls as none of our members is amongst the eligible voters.”