CHANDIGARH: It is a season of setbacks for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). After Haryana broke away to form its own separate gurdwara management body, Sikhs in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are also demanding their own state gurdwara management committees.
As if that wasn’t trouble enough for the Akali Dal that controls SGPC, Hazur Sahib—one of the five temporal seats of the Sikhs in Nanded, Maharashtra—also wants that local Sikhs should have more representation on the Takht Hazur Sahib Board.
A delegation of Sikhs met UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on August 2 urging him to create a separate gurdwara committee in the state on the lines of Haryana. There are around 20 historical gurdwaras in UP that are currently managed either by kar sewa (volunteer) groups, local committees or trusts.
A Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee of Rajasthan (RSGPC) has already been formed unofficially. Its ad hoc president Hardeep Singh Dibdiba said the demand for separate management committees in all states would only get louder. “We have already prepared a draft for formation of the RSGPC and submitted it to the state government. We would soon meet Rajasthan Chief Minister in this regard,” he said, adding that the state has around 15 lakh Sikhs and 35 major gurdwaras.
In Takht Hazur Sahib Board (Nanded), the demand is to reduce representation of SGPC and give greater control to local leaders. At present, the 17-member board has four nominated SGPC members, one from Chief Khalsa Diwan, four members from Sachkhand Hazuri Khalsa Diwan, one member each from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, two Sikh members of parliament, three members elected from the seven districts of Marathwara, besides the Nanded Deputy Commissioner.
A committee headed by retired Bombay High Court judge, Justice J S Bhatia, has been formed by Maharashtra government to recommend amendments in the Takht Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib Board Nanded Act, 1956. Already, gurdwaras abroad do not come under the control of SGPC and different countries have their own management bodies. There is the American Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee; Singh Sabha Foundation, Canada; Kar Seva Committee, UK; and the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee formed by the Pakistan Wakf Board in 1999.
Kanwar Pal Singh of Dal Khalsa said, “We fully respect the ambitions and aspirations of Sikhs of Haryana to manage their religious institutions independent of Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The basic essence and character of this body has totally transformed and it is nothing more than a puppet in the hands of the Badal family. We feel the hue and cry by the Badals on this issue is nothing but an opportunity to revive their political moorings.”