CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today formed a seven-member committee to hold discussions with the Union Government to facilitate the restoration of the Guru Ravisas temple at Tughlaqabad to the satisfaction of the Ravidasia community.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the SAD Scheduled Caste Wing which was presided over by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The party decided to form the committee to hold talks with representatives of the Union Government who have been deputed by Union home minister Amit Shah to resolve the issue.
This development has come about after the SAD president and Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal met the Home Minister and urged him to sympathetically consider the demand of the Ravidasia community to reconstruct the Guru Ravidas temple at its original location in Tughlaqabad.
The seven-member committee including former Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, former ministers Gulzar Singh Ranike and Sohan Singh Thandal, former MLA Nirmal Singh and legislators Pawan Kumar Tinu, Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi and Baldev Khara will meet the Union government representatives to hold discussions on the restoration of the Guru Ravidas temple tomorrow.
Dalit leaders while expressing their views at the meeting said there was an overwhelming feeling amongst the community that the temple should be restored in all its glory at the same site.
They said the site where the temple stood before it was demolished held deep ‘aastha’ for the community and said they would urged the union government to keep this in mind while taking a decision on the matter.
Sukhbir said the SAD would abide with the decision taken by the seven member delegation as well as the larger Ravidasia community.
He said Guru Ravidas was a venerable saint who was highly respected and revered by the Sikh community as well as Punjabis. “The ‘baani’ of Guru Ravidas is an inextricable part of Guru Granth Sahib Maharaj and is also part of the composite culture of Punjab.
We all stand as one with the Ravidasia community and hope for an early resolution to this issue”, he added.