Ex-communicated — Three high priests join Kaur, crisis deepens

The SGPC president, accompanied by her supporters, came to the Harmandir Sahib at 12:00 p.m. After paying her respects, she headed for the Akal Takht, the spiritual and temporal seat of the Sikhs.

Though, a group of priests acting on the orders of Giani Puran Singh tried to prevent her entry into the Takht premises, they failed. As per the tradition, an ex-communicated Sikh cannot enter the Takht, but could sit below.

After bowing before the Guru Granth Sahib and watched by Giani Puran Singh, Bibi Jagir Kaur, along with her supporters, came out of the Akal Takht and returned to her office at Teja Singh Samundari Hall.

This provoked Giani Puran Singh and brought him to his feet. He declared that Kaur had once again challenged the Takht’s authority and would remain ex-communicated. The Jathedar, in his fresh directive, forbade all Sikhs, irrespective of their positions, from maintaining any social or religious liaison with Bibi Jagir Kaur.

"You all saw the manner in which she forced her entry into the Takht," the Jathedar said over the public address system while referring to Bibi Jagir Kaur’s aggressive attitude.

Puran Singh had, on Saturday, asked Jagir Kaur to appear before the Takht and seek forgiveness. Prof Manjit Singh, Giani Kewal Singh and Golden Temple priest Charan Singh held a meeting after which they went to the Akal Takht where Puran Singh was waiting for them. A fiery exchange of words, reportedly, took place among the top clerics.

While Puran Singh wanted to hold the court at the Akal Takht to "punish" Jagir Kaur, the other high priests wanted to discuss the matter first, particularly the validity of the January 25 edict ex-communicating Kaur. Unable to come to reach any common ground, the clerics left in a huff. Minutes later, Puran Singh announced their ex-communication from the balcony of the Akal Takht. The Jathedar found them guilty of having questioned his ex-communication ‘hukamnama’.

Terming the developments as "extremely sad and unfortunate", Jagir Kaur told PTI that the SGPC would take a strong view of the violation of ‘maryada’ at the Akal Takht. "A meeting of the SGPC will be called shortly and a decision will be taken about this violation," she said.

Kaur said that no single individual had the right to ex-communicate or take any decision about Sikh clerics heading glorious institutions like the Takhts.

Prof Manjit Singh and Giani Kewal Singh were members of the ‘panj payara’ panel constituted on Saturday by Giani Puran Singh for hearing Bibi Jagir Kaur’s case. "We wanted to discuss the hukamnama with Giani Puran Singh, but he did not give us permission," Prof Manjit Singh declared before leaving the Golden Temple complex.

Besides Giani Puran Singh, other members of the panj payara panel which met at the Akal Takht on Sunday were Subba Singh, Roshan Singh, Milkha Singh and Rattan Singh. They were the same priests who, along with Giani Puran Singh, had issued the ex-communication ‘hukamnama’ (on Kaur) from Guna in Madhya Pradesh.

Later, Bibi Jagir kaur told mediapersons that she did not appear before the takht as she had been told that the heads of Takht Keshgarh Sahib and Takht Damdama Sahib were not at the Akal Takht.