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Journalism of Courage
AMRITSAR, FEBRUARY 2: Ignoring pleas from senior Akali Dal members to find an amicable solution to his tussle with the Sikh Gurdwarara Prabandhak Committee, Akal Takht jathedar Giani Puran Singh on Wednesday declared ten SGPC executive members tankhaiyas (religious offenders).
All 14 members, except ex-communicated SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, who appeared before the jathedar at the takht in the Golden Temple complex this morning, endorsed his January 25 hukamnama.
The jathedar said Bibi Jagir Kaur could continue to head the SGPC but can resume functioning at the office only after appearing before the Akal Takht.
The regimen under the two-day punishment order includes cleaning of utensils at the langar’ (community kitchen) of the golden temple for an hour, listening to Gurbani at the Harmandir Sahib for an hour and reciting the japji sahib’ prayers five times a day. It comes to force from Wednesday.
In his hukamnama issued from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, the jathedar had expelledBibi Jagir Kaur from the Sikh Panth for defying an earlier edict of the takht restraining her and the executive from going ahead with the implementation of the controversial Nanakshahi calander.
Today the jathedar issued the fresh hukamnama making no reference to the SGPC chief. Only at a press conference held later, did he speak about Bibi Jagir Kaur. “She will not be pardoned until she appeared before the Akal Takht. She cannot continue to function as SGPC president,” he said, but added that he had not sought her resignation from the presidentship.
The penalised SGPC members, on completion of obeying the punishment, would offer karaha parshad at the Harmandir Sahib on February four. This would be followed by the jathedar offering them ardas at the takht to “relieve them of their sins”.
The punishment order was issued after a brief meeting the jathedar had with four top priests. Those awarded the tankha were SGPC general secretary Hardalbir Singh Shah, Joga Singh,Joginder Singh, Raghujit Singh Virk, bhagwant Singh, harbans Singh manjpur, jagdheer Singh, gurbax Singh, subba Singh and Pritam Singh Bhatia. All of them, who were made to stand before the jathedar when the edict was announced, accepted the order with folded hands.
