ANANDPUR SAHIB, SEPT 17: Congress President Sonia Gandhi would not be accorded reception by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) during her forthcoming visit to the Golden Temple at Amritsar. She is tentatively scheduled to visit the shrine on September 27 to pay her obeisance.Talking to mediapersons after a meeting of the executive of the SGPC, its president Gurcharan Singh Tohra said she belonged to the Gandhi family which was responsible for causing the maximum anguish to the Sikhs.``The Sikhs cannot forgive and forget the Gandhi family,'' he said. He justified the warm welcome accorded to Queen Elizabeth during her visit to the Golden Temple earlier arguing there could be no comparison between the two situations.At the same time, he maintained the shrine was open to one and all without any discrimination. He admitted Sonia Gandhi was a VIP but ruled out special treatment. When pointed out why he had bracketed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Indira Gandhi, he said that wasonly so far as their attitude towards Punjab issues was concerned as both used the same terminology of dekhenge, but, Vajpayee was certainly a better person.He reiterated that the Vajpayee government must address to the long-pending demands of Punjab and transfer Chandigarh and Punjabi speaking areas immediately. Referring to the memorandum submitted by him to Vajpayee last month listing a number of demands concerning mainly the Sikhs, he said the setting up of a scrutiny commission to go into November, 1984 violence against the Sikhs would only help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He said the Srikrishna Commission had exposed the guilty and the same should be done in case of November, 1984 violence.Another demand related to the exemption to the Sikh men and women from wearing helmet while driving two wheeler. He referred to the exemption granted to the Sikhs abroad from wearing of helmets and said the name on the identity card with Singh or Kaur should be the criteria for exemption.On theUdham Singh Nagar, he made it clear the Akali Dal would vote against the Bill as and when introduced in the Lok Sabha. He said the ongoing controversy relating to the three jathedars of the takhts was not on the agenda of the meeting. ``This is not an issue even otherwise'', he said.
