PATIALA/ JIND, March 15: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's bitter critic Gurcharan Singh Tohra resigned as president of the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) today saying he was doing so to uphold the supremacy of the Akal Takht.Tohra, who has been SGPC chief for 25 years, said he did not want SGPC members violating the Takht's hukamnama (religious edict). The Akal Takht chief had issued a hukamnama to the Badal and Tohra factions asking them to refrain from making any statement against each other until April 15 in view of the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations. Tohra's resignation comes a day before Badal loyalists in the SGPC had planned to meet and formally oust him. Today, Badal's supporters ``occupied'' the SGPC office in Amritsar when all senior functionaries were away at Jind for the executive committee meeting called by Tohra.In a letter to SGPC members, Tohra said that he had made efforts to avoid a crisis in the party. He claimed he had repeatedly told Badal that he was willingto step down as SGPC chief only if he stopped ``hitting at the lofty traditions of supreme religious institutions.''Tohra said he had also offered to continue as an ordinary Akali Dal worker if proceedings against Bhai Ranjit Singh, the suspended Akal Takht jathedar, were revoked and his prestige restored. He said he had offered to leave Punjab, even the country, if his quitting as SGPC chief was not enough.Even in his resignation, Tohra hit out at Badal saying he had been blinded by putra moh (love for his son) and entered into a conflict with the ``all powerful Akal Takht.''Tohra had kicked up a controversy last December when he had called for a new party chief in place of Badal. There was a virtual crisis in the party when five Punjab ministers known to be close to Tohra, including Harmail Singh Tohra, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Manjit Singh Calcutta, Inderjit Singh Zira and Surjit Singh Kohli, resigned from the Cabinet on December 14. Their resignations were accepted a day later.Tohra in hisletter said the day was not far when the ``fever'' of political power would subside and those indulging in ``anti-panthic activities'' would realise their mistakes and repent.Earlier, Tohra presided over a truncated SGPC executive meeting with Badal's loyalists boycotting it. Soon after the meeting, Tohra blamed Badal for the ongoing Akali Dal crisis and for ``whatever has happened during the past three months.''While most who were at the venue thought this would be the last executive meeting to be presided over by Tohra, he gave no indication of what was coming, stating that if SGPC members loyal to Badal removed him, he would approach the courts. However, he took the opportunity to announce an increment for SGPC employees. The SGPC budget, said to be part of today's agenda, was not discussed.The fact that the majority of the executive was not with him was clear today. With four other members present and ten absent, the quorum was barely complete.Perhaps keeping the resignation in mind, threeresolutions were passed by the SGPC executive apart from confirming the minutes of the last meeting.The increment was one. The other was to instal a portrait of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra in the Sikh Historical Musuem in the precincts of the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Khalra had identified nearly 3,000 persons from Tarn Taran and Patti who were reportedly missing under suspicious circumstances. Later Khalra himself disappeared, leading to a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry. The third resolution was critical of the move to impose income tax on the income of religious places.Asked about his next step, Tohra said he would participate in the tercentenary functions organised under the aegis of suspended Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh. ``Everyone recognises Bhai Ranjit Singh as the Jathedar and the reported meeting of the SGPC executive by Badal loyalists where he was suspended is illegal,'' Tohra said.
