CHANDIGARH, DECEMBER 16: Senior leader and dissident Akali Dal MLA Ravi Inder Singh, who is also a member of the all powerful Political Affairs Committee of the party, was on Wednesday suspended from the party for an indefinite period. The action is being seen as a warning signal to MLAs who had started rallying around Ravi Inder Singh after the humiliating defeat of the party in the Lok Sabha elections.A ``unanimous'' decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the party working committee which also authorised party president and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take further action.After the expulsion of former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra from the party, former Speaker Ravi Inder Singh is the second senior leader facing action in recent times.The working committee went ahead with the agenda following dismissal of a petition earlier in the day filed by Ravi Inder Singh in a Chandigarh court pleading for stay on the working committee meeting.The civil court in nearby Kharar also clarified on Wednesday that Tuesday's order ``did not restrain holding any meeting held in due course of law in pursuance of and as per the terms of the constitution of the Shiromani Akali Dal''.In another development, Ravi Inder Singh approached Akal Takht, the supreme temporal authority of the Sikhs for prayer and politics, seeking action against Badal for his anti-Panthic activities.The resolution released at the news conference, and passed at the meeting, referred to the expulsion of Ravi Inder Singh from the primary membership of the party for six years. However, Badal, who addressed the news conference, clarified it was suspension and not dismissal.Ravi Inder Singh was earlier issued a show cause notice. In the political battle, Ravi Inder Singh resorted to legal remedy, though he also sent his reply to the show cause notice. He is related to Badal. Ravi Inder Singh is the also a member of the working committee but did not attend the meeting.The working committee described the reply submitted by him as unsatisfactory and direct challenge to the democratic traditions of the party. The working committee saw similarities in the attacks on the Akali Dal Government by Ravi Inder Singh, the Congress and Tohra.The locus standi of the party's political affairs committee had come to be challenged by the dissidents as there is no mention of this body in the party constitution. The working committee, in a significant decision, delegated the powers to the PAC to take emergent decisions on political issues concerning the party.While reiterating full faith in the leadership of Badal, the meeting authorised him to take any decision to confront the challenges from within and outside.Badal said action against 10 party MLAs associated with Tohra would be taken in due course. The working committee also ratified the expulsion of senior leaders Surjan Singh Thekedar and Prem Singh Chandumajra, former MP, from the party.The working committee also appreciated the efforts initiated by Badal which had set the process for economic and political restructuring of the country with focus on federalism. The economic development of the states was not possible without restructuring on federal principles.The party demanded setting up of a commission to probe the violence against the Sikhs in 1984 which should submit the report within a given time frame.
