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Journalism of Courage
The move by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) executive committee to sack Giani Harpreet Singh as the Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar is set to heat up panthic politics in Punjab.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-dominated SGPC’s action has come on the basis of a report of its three-member panel probing allegations of misconduct against Harpreet Singh, which were levelled by one of his relatives.
The SGPC had earlier suspended Harpreet Singh from his post. He has, however, denied the allegations.
Both the Akali Dal and the SGPC have been facing attacks from the outspoken Harpreet Singh for the past couple of months, with the latter accusing some SAD leaders of allegedly running a campaign for his “character assassination” to divert attention from the directives issued by the Akal Takht on December 2 last year.
The termination of Harpreet Singh’s services may open a Pandora’s box which could have implications for the SGPC, the Akali Dal, and the Akal Takht, whose linkages are at the center of the current crisis facing Akali politics. The SGPC is also the appointing authority for the post of the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs.
On December 2, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, along with four other Jathedars including Harpreet Singh, declared then SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal “tankhaiya” (guilty of violating the Sikh religious code) for “mistakes” made by him as Punjab deputy chief minister from 2008 to 2017, including the incidents of “sacrilege” under the then SAD-BJP government led by his father late Parkash Singh Badal.
The Akal Takht Jathedar called for Sukhbir’s resignation as the Akali Dal chief and for the party’s reorganisation starting with a membership drive followed by internal elections. The Akal Takht also formed a seven-members committee for reorganising the SAD while calling the existing party leadership “unfit”.
Since its debacle in the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections, the SAD has been in a free fall, struggling to reverse its political fortunes in successive state Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
In 2022, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the state Assembly polls, winning 92 out of 117 seats as against the Congress’s 18, the SAD, contesting the polls solo after break-up with the BJP, could win just 3 seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the SAD got just one seat as against the Congress’s seven and the AAP’s three seats.
Observers say Sukhbir’s submission before the Akal Takht on December 2 and his acceptance of religious punishment was meant to improve the party’s image among Sikhs in hope to win back its vote bank. The party was also facing allegations of “misusing its influence over SGPC and Akal Takht”.
The SAD’s apparent failure to implement the Akal Takht’s December 2 directives fully has heightened tensions, with Harpreet Singh’s bid to up the ante against the party fuelling it further.
None of the Jathedars of the five Sikh Takhts has a fixed tenure. In the last three decades, at least six Jathedars, including Harpreet Singh, came in conflict with the SAD and were removed by the SGPC that used its discretionary power. Also, no Akal Takht Jathedar has been able to complete his term without facing a row in the recent past.
Notably, there are no laid-down rules or norms for the appointments and removals of the Jathedars, with a draft blueprint in this regard pending for the SGPC’s approval and implementation since March 2008.
Harpreet Singh hails from Muktsar, Sukhbir Badal’s home district. He was not a known figure in 2018 when the SGPC named him as the Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar. He was then also appointed as the acting Akal Takht Jathedar as Giani Gurbachan Singh had resigned from the post amid clamour for his removal for having given pardon to Dera Sirsa head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a sacrilege case in 2015.
The SGPC has maintained that it has fired Harpreet Singh as the Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar over allegations of misconduct against him.
Hitting back, Harpreet Singh had said that the SGPC probe against him was a bid to deflect attention from the Akal Takht’s directives on the SAD’s reorganisation.
On January 6, reacting to the SGPC’s probe against Harpreet Singh, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh said, “I had objected to the SGPC probe against Giani Harpreet Singh because only Akal Takht can launch such a probe against a Jathedar. Second, Giani Harpreet Singh has given the clarification in front of Panj Payaras (five beloved) that he has not committed the sin that has been alleged against him. In this scenario such a probe means nothing.”
SGPC senior vice president Raghujit Singh Virk, who is part of the body’s three-member panel that probed the allegations against Harpreet Singh, is known as a close aide of the Badal family.
On December 2, Virk was among those held guilty by the Jathedars for issuing advertisements worth Rs 91 lakh on behalf of the SGPC to justify the pardon given to the Dera Sirsa head.
Back in 2020, Virk was also among the SGPC executive committee members, who were found guilty by then acting Akal Takht Jathedar Harpreet Singh over an incident of fire at Guru Granth Sahib Bhavan in 2016.
Virk’s inclusion in the SGPC panel probing allegations against Harpreet Singh raised questions in the panthic circles over its “credibility” as he was probing someone who had declared him “guilty” twice.
Harpreet Singh said, “The SGPC had probed the same allegations against me much before I was made Jathedar. They didn’t find anything in these allegations and in later years I was appointed Jathedar. Now, the same allegations are again being probed by the panel which is not eligible to do so.”
It is to be seen whether Akal Takht Jathedar Raghbir Singh sticks to his stand and confront the SGPC over Harpret Singh’s removal, or chooses another course. He is currently on a foreign tour.
