JALANDHAR, Sept 29: In what could be a final showdown on the recent controversy raging among the Sikh clergy in Punjab, the warring factions are likely to come face to face to thrash out an amicable solution to the current drama during a special meeting of the World Sikh Council (WSC) which has been convened at Chandigarh, on October 1.The protagonists in the ongoing controversy - Bhai Ranjit Singh, Jathedar of the Akal Takht, and patron of the council, SGPC president G.S. Tohra, and Prof Manjit Singh, Jathedar of Takht Keshgarh Sahib - would be sharing the common platform for the first time since the controversy erupted.Over 300 WSC members of Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Delhi regions have been invited for the meeting.Even as former secretary general of the council, Jaswant Singh Mann dubbed the special meeting as "illegal" and without "locus standii", the current secretary general, Brig Gurdip Singh (retd) told ENS that the meeting had been called after concurrence between Bhai Ranjit Singh and the president of the council, Justice Kuldip Singh.Prof Manjit Singh, a former president of the council, who was nailed by Bhai Ranjit Singh for not disclosing the council accounts, has also been invited.When contacted on telephone at Patiala, Prof Manjit Singh said the meeting had been called by Tohra. He said that he was going to the meeting with a positive frame of mind and also to scotch any impression that he was being an obstacle in diffusing the current crisis.Council sources said that a fresh proposal to perch the SGPC president, G S Tohra as the head of the World Sikh Council, as originally planned at the inception of the council in 1996, may be forwarded during the special meeting. "This is being thought of as an alternative to diffuse the current crisis," they said. Tohra had reportedly refused to accept the presidentship of the council at that time since the powers of the president, as envisaged in the WSC constitution, were actually concentrated in the vice-president.Brig Gurdip Singh said the confirmation regarding participation by Bhai Ranjit Singh and Tohra would be available by tomorrow. However, Prof Manjit Singh has said he would definitely participate.Gurdip Singh said that the council meeting would attempt to resolve the issues that had shaken the council recently. "Everybody's opinion will be available as all members have been invited. We are hopeful for a positive outcome," he added.Former secretary general Mann who has been pressurised by Tohra, among others, to hand over the accounts of the council to the new president said that he would not do so since Justice Kuldip Singh was not an elected president of the council. Justice Singh's election has been challenged in the court at Chandigarh.Prof Manjit Singh who was first asked by Bhai Ranjit Singh to hand over the accounts of the council to new president, told ENS from Patiala that he had resigned as president of the council on the call of the Akal Takht Jathedar. He said he did not go into the merit or the demerit of such demand but acquiesced to "uphold the dignity of the Akal Takht''.Alleging that the council had not been functioning as it was proposed, he said. Prof Singh said meetings of the general house of the council should have been convened after every three months but it was never done.
