Warring Sikh clergy to meet

JALANDHAR, Sept 30: In what could be the final showdown of the recent controversy among the Sikh clergy in Punjab, the warring factions a...

JALANDHAR, Sept 30: In what could be the final showdown of the recent controversy 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 in a special meeting of the World Sikh Council (WSC) which has been convened at Chandigarh on October 1.

Bhai Ranjit Singh, jathedar of the Akal Takht, SGPC president G S Tohra, and Prof Manjit Singh, jathedar of Takht Keshgarh Sahib will be sharing a common platform for the first time since the controversy erupted. Even as former WSC secretary general Jaswant Singh Mann dubbed the special meeting “illegal” and without “locus standi”, the current secretary general, Brig Gurdip Singh (retd) told The Indian Express that the meeting had been called after concurrence between Bhai Ranjit Singh and the president of the council, Justice Kuldip Singh.

Professor Manjit Singh, a former president, told The Indian Express from Patiala that he was going to the conference in a positive frame ofmind and also to scotch any impression that he was obstructing any solution to the crisis.

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Sources said a fresh proposal to make Tohra head of the World Sikh Council might 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 in 1996 since the powers of the president, as envisaged in the WSC constitution, were actually concentrated in the vice-president.

Brig Gurdip Singh said Bhai Ranjit Singh and Tohra would inform them about possible participation in the meeting by tomorrow and added that the council meeting would attempt to resolve the issues that have shaken the Sikh council.

Prof Manjit Singh, who was first asked by Bhai Ranjit Singh to hand over the accounts of the council to the new president, said he had resigned as president of the council on Bhai Ranjit Singh’s request. He said he did not go into the merit or the demerit of the demand butacquiesced to “uphold the dignity of the Akal Takht”.

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