Haryana's move to have a separate SGPC for the State has snowballed into a major row,with Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee,the apex religious body of the Sikhs,on Thursday seeking the Prime Minister's intervention to stop the Hooda government from going ahead with the formation of a separate body. "Being a Sikh himself,Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh should pull up and ask (Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh) Hooda why is he interfering in the religious affairs of the Sikhs. The PM should immediately direct Hooda to shelve the move to have a separate SGPC for the State," SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said addressing a press conference here. He said the SGPC had come into existence before country's Independence due to long struggle by many including father of the Prime Minister and warned any attempt by the Haryana Government or anybody else to divide it will not be tolerated at any cost. "No Sikh in this world will like to see a weak SGPC," he said,adding the issue was not one of who will have control over running the affairs of the Gurudwaras,but that of "trust and faith". Makkar said that he had earlier written four letters to the Prime Minister on this issue and met him twice. "Dr Manmohan Singh himself had earlier told me (before last Lok Sabha polls) that he had directed the Union Home Minister to tell Haryana government not to go ahead with its move on separate SGPC. The PM in my last meeting with him a few months back told me that he would himself telephone Hooda and ask him not to go ahead with his plan," Makkar claimed. Asked if Haryana remains adamant in going ahead with its move on having a separate SGPC,with Hooda announcing that separate body could be in place on November 1 provided no legal hurdles are involved,Makkar said the SGPC's executive committee meeting on August 10 and general body meet on August 14 will decide the future course of action to be taken. Makkar accused the Congress of "dividing" the Sikhs for their own "votebank politics". "The Congress,which projects itself as a secular party,has always meddled with the religious affairs of the Sikhs and ignored their interests right from 1947 when country gained freedom," he alleged. He claimed that Sikhs in Haryana had "never demanded a separate SGPC and it was only manipulation of the Congress to divide the community to serve their own vested interests". "There has never been any demand from the Sikhs,but a political stunt enacted by the Congress..No Sikh in the world will like to see a weak SGPC," he said. Makkar said that the issue of who will run and have control over the running the affairs of the Gurudwaras in Haryana,but that pertaining to the religious sentiments and feelings of the entire Sikh community. He said that out of 11 elected SGPC members from Haryana,six were with them while remaining five also did not want a separate body,but only had few other concerns. He claimed that out of 18 elected local Gurudwaras Committees in Haryana,heads of 15 of them were with them and were present at today's press conference here. "They are opposed to any move on separate body," he said. Makkar said that some disgruntled Sikh leaders including Didar Singh Nalvi,who is spearheading the demand for a separate body for Haryana,would come aboard soon. Makkar refuted claims by some disgruntled Sikh leaders from Haryana that SGPC had been ignoring the State's Sikhs. "The claims that the earnings from Haryana Gurudwaras annually come to over Rs 70 crore are false. SGPC has a budget of Rs 10 crore for running the affairs of Gurudwaras in Haryana whereas we get only Rs 3 crore from them," he claimed. He said that SGPC spends crores of rupees every year on its medical college which had been set up at Shahbad in Kurukshetra district in Haryana,but the State Government for "vested reasons" was not giving it the NOC. He also termed the lakhs of affidavits given by the Haryana Sikhs to the Committee which had been formed by the Haryana Government earlier on the separate SGPC issue,were "merely a bunch of lies and manipulation." "These false affidavits without any attestation have been prepared on plain sheet of paper by Congress leaders in Haryana only to mislead the public," he claimed. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda last Friday announced that his State could have a separate SGPC on November 1,the day when Haryana was carved out as a separate state in 1966,provided there was no legal hitch involved. With State Assembly polls in Haryana likely to be pre-poned and held sometime in October,Hooda by announcing the possibility of a separate body has tried to woo the Sikh community in his State. The Congress had promised a separate SGPC for Haryana in its manifesto for the 2005 Assembly elections. The Haryana Government had set up a Committee under the chairmanship of State Agriculture Minister H S Chatha "keeping in view the aspirations" of the Sikh community of the State and the Committee recently submitted its report to the Hooda government.
