Badal, Hooda war of words over Haryana SGPC

Raising the pitch to oppose the Haryana Government’s move to set up a separate gurdwara body...

Raising the pitch to oppose the Haryana Government’s move to set up a separate gurdwara body, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here on Friday petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene “effectively and immediately” and “save Punjab from turning into another Kashmir”.

However, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda indicated he would put a parallel Haryana SGPC in place.“I have to take care of the interests and feelings of the Sikhs of Haryana,” Hooda said when asked to comment on Badal’s meeting with the PM. “I am only waiting for the report (of an eight-member committee headed by Haryana Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, which has been asked to look into the issue).”

The committee is just an eyewash, for Hooda and Chatha have both already committed themselves to the establishment of the committee by voting a Haryana Vidhan Sabha resolution in favour of the move. The committee is expected to submit its report by this month-end, and the Vidhan Sabha gets into session from September 1. Thereafter, the process for preparing a draft legislation would be set in motion.

It is no longer what it appears: a war of words confined to the national capital. Both sides are also pitching in for parallel shows of strength in the field too. The Akalis have already announced a massive rally at Karnal for August 30. The “Haryana SGPC Ad hoc,” enjoying the patronage and support of Congress, has also planned a counter-rally at Karnal for the same day.

“Since they are coming to our state to demonstrate their hegemony over us, we have to show that we are determined to break free of their stranglehold,” Haryana SGPC Ad hoc president Jagdish Singh Jhinda said. When told that this could lead to tension or even violence, Jhinda said, “Yes, of course, an explosion of extreme feelings is inevitable. Anything can happen when the atmosphere is charged.” SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar had petitioned the PM against the Haryana plan on Monday.

Badal said, “The PM told us that he would direct Home Minister Shivraj Patil to take up the matter with the Haryana Government. He said he could understand the seriousness of the problem and the sensitivities of the Sikhs on the issue as his own father had courted arrest in the struggle for the formation of the SGPC before Independence.”