The crucial meeting of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) executive held in Gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib here today accepted the resignations of SPGC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar and executive member Sukhdev Singh Bhaur. Alwinderpal Singh Pakhoke was elected SGPC acting president.The SGPC executive, however, failed to decide on the next date of the meeting. Initially, sources had indicated the executive would be reconvened after 72 hours following a notice that was to be given today. When asked about the next meeting in which G.S. Tohra is to be coopted a member of the executive to facilitate his election as president, Pakhoke avoided the issue saying the agenda for today’s meeting was only to discuss the resignations of Badungar and Bhaur.With decks cleared for Tohra to take over, he was expected to be accommodated as a member of the SGPC executive today after the acceptance of Bhaur’s resignation.Kirpal Singh Badungar dismissed suggestions that he had been made a scapegoat in the process of unity between the two Akali factions. When asked why the party could not wait for two more months for elections, he said that he was a dedicated soldier of the Sikh Panth. ‘‘I volunteered to quit to pave way for Tohra’s election,’’ he asserted. Thanking the staff and members of the SGPC for their cooperation during his tenure, Badungar said important projects, especially setting up of an IAS training academy and a separate directorate under the SGPC for overseeing educational institutions run by it, were still incomplete.He recounted some important events during his tenure as head of the Sikh religious body which included declaring the late Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a martyr. He said that the issue had been hanging fire for long ‘‘since the family of the late Sant were not reconciled to the fact of his being dead’’. The executive unanimously adopted a resolution which lauded the services of Badungar as SGPC president and Siropas were presented to him in recognition of his services. Siropas were also presented to the new acting president of the SGPC. In his terse five-line resignation letter, Badungar said that he was resigning to give practical shape to unity between Akali factions and requested the executive to accept his resignation in the larger interest of the Sikh Panth.
