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Badal Dal MPs led by Punjab CM meet Rajnath to oppose creation of separate SGPC for Haryana
June 20, 2014 | By Parmjeet Singh
New Delhi, India (June 19, 2014): As per information a delegation of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) MPs led by its Chief Patron and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday (on June 19) submitted two separate memorandums one on Sehajdari issue and another for urging the Indian government to stop the Haryana government with its move to interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikhs through its deliberate attempt to set up a religious body to manage Sikh shrines in the state.
According to media reports the Badal Dal delegation apprised minister Rajnath Singh that the move of the Congress government in Haryana to set up a separate and parallel body to the SGPC in that state was the latest in the series of acts of interference in Sikh religious affairs. The delegation said that despite its claim of being a secular party, the Congress even made this issue a major item on its manifesto in the last assembly poll in the state.
Parkash Singh Badal and others addressing the media after meeting Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh
The memorandum further said that the Congress party has even instigated a “handful of misguided elements” to adopt this move as their own to oppose the will of the Sikh masses at large.
The delegation said that in the last elections to the General House of the SGPC, the Congress sponsored elements made a separate body for Haryana the main election issue and yet lost all 11 seats to SAD (Badal) candidates in that state, “confirming” the “fact” that the Haryana Sikhs were strongly opposed to the separate body move. But the unwise and dangerous move, which could have “implications for peace”, has still not been abandoned.
Significantly, the UPA government at the Center had also opposed it and dissuaded the Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from pursuing it. But obviously he has paid no heed to that, the delegation informed the Indian Home Minister.
The delegation said that this move was a clear transgression on the residual powers of the Parliament because the SGPC was an Inter-State Body Corporate and only the Parliament was competent to make laws on issues concerning it. To preserve the objects, the reasons and legislative intent of the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, it was necessary that a proper law is enacted by the Parliament taking within its purview the constitution of one Board, the SGPC, for management of Sikh Gurdwaras within “the existing territorial extent” which in this case means the territorial jurisdiction as applicable at the time of the passage of the Sikh Gurdwara Act,1925. The delegation called for an end to interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs which has been nearly instrumentalized by successive Congress governments and urged the BJP governmentto take immediate and effective steps to permanently end the potential for this mischief in the larger national interest and in the interest of peace.
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Related Topics: HSGPC, Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Politics, SGPC, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal)
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