CHANDIGARH, FEB 10: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra today evening reacted strongly to the suspension of Akal Takht jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh by the loyalists of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and charged the Akali Dal Government with launching an attack on the Sikh principles.Action against Bhai Ranjit Singh was taken at a meeting attended by 10 out of 15 members of the executive committee on the directive of the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission.Tohra told The Indian Express the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat symbolising the Sikh doctrine, had been damaged physically several times but the Sikhs kept the institution and the principles alive. Now the Sikh doctrine was under attack and that too, by an Akali Government.On the appointment of Giani Puran Singh as acting Jathedar of Akal Takht following the refusal of Giani Mohan Singh to accept the offer earlier in the day, the SGPC chief asserted the executive could not appoint Giani Puran Singh in that manner.The executive had met on the directive of the Gurdwara Judicial Commission and decided to suspend Bhai Ranjit Singh and appoint Giani Mohan Singh as the acting jathedar. Later, Giani Mohan Singh declined the offer.He said the meeting could be reconvened within 48 hours only by the SGPC president and this norm had been violated in the appointment of Giani Puran Singh.The SGPC chief described the suspension of Bhai Ranjit Singh as unprecedented and against Sikh tenets. He argued the Akal Takht jathedar could not be removed this way despite the fact the executive committee of the SGPC is the appointing authority and the appointment is later ratified by the general house. The Sikh sects and organisations play their role at the time of installation of the jathedar. He said the issue involved not legality but Sikh convention. Considering that Sikh organisations recognised the installation, the jathedar could not be removed by the executive, he maintained.He said in case the jathedar violated the Sikh tenets, then the Sarbat Khalsa (a meeting of Sikh organisations) should be convened to take the decision.When pointed out that on an earlier occasion, Akal Takht jathedar Bhai Jasvir Singh Rode was summarily dismissed by the SGPC executive, Tohra said he was in jail at the time and the government had pressurised the executive to take the decision. That is the only precedent to the removal of the jathedar.He appealed to Sikhs to face the challenge posed by the Akali Dal Government to Sikh principles, for which they have been making sacrifices.Tohra and his four associates in the executive committee did not attend the meeting.
