CHANDIGARH: The Akal Takht on Wednesday excommunicated Haryana Finance Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Didar Singh Nalwi from the Sikh community for defying the community’s highest temporal seat and forming a separate gurdwara management committee for the state.
Jathedar Akal Takhat (high priest) Gurbachan Singh said the leaders would remain out of the Sikh fold as long as they didn’t approach the Akal Takht and ask for forgiveness.
Gurbachan said that though the three leaders had been summoned to give their clarifications, they insulted the Akal Takht by ignoring the directive.
“They also issued objectionable statements before the media against the Sikh customs and the Akal Takht. They were time and again asked to appear before the Akal Takht but never bothered to turn up and remained instrumental in the formation of the so-called Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC),” he said.
He said the executive committee of the Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Amritsar and various Sikh outfits had strongly demanded the excommunication of the three leaders for “anti-Sikh” activities.
On July 1, Gurbachan invited leaders of rival factions of the then ad-hoc HSGPC -- Didar and Jagdish -- along with four others to the Akal Takht over their demand for a separate SGPC. As they didn’t turn up, he sent a 10-member committee to Kurukshetra to meet the leaders. However, nothing came out of the meeting.
On July 6, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a separate SGPC, for which a bill was passed in the Assembly. The HSGPC was formed on Tuesday after the Governor gave his assent to the bill. Earlier, Chatha had given a report to the government in favour of creating such a body.
Meanwhile, while holding Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal responsible for the “mess”, the radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa termed the Akal Takht edict “unprincipled and unacceptable”.
Threatens to Quit
Badal on Wednesday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi, seeking their intervention to solve the crisis related to the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, and threatened to resign if the Centre didn’t step in.