CHANDIGARH: Veteran Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Kirpal Singh Badungar has been
elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the mini parliament of the Sikhs. Badungar’s nomination was conveyed in a sealed envelop to the first meeting of the new general house of the SGPC in Amritsar. His name was proposed by senior Akali Dal leader and Punjab agriculture minister Tota Singh and seconded by Akali Dal MLA and former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur.
This is Kirpal Singh’s second time as SGPC president. He was president from November
2001 to July 2003. He is the author of several books on Sikh theology. Badungar replaces the outgoing president, Avtar Singh Makkar. This general house of the SGPC was elected in 2011 but was kept under suspended animation by the Supreme Court due to litigation. The stay was lifted some week ago, which allowed the new house to meet today.
Today’s general house meeting of SGPC was presided over by Balwinder Singh, who was
given temporary charge as deputy commissioner of Amritsar in place of the incumbent Varun Roojam. As per the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, the first meeting of the SGPC general house is presided over by the deputy commissioner of Amritsar. It is for this reason that Amritsar used to have a Sikh officer as its deputy commissioner since Partition. But that tradition was overlooked by the present SAD-BJP
government. So pass muster under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, templorary charge of the post had to be given to Balwinder Singh, a Sikh.
Apart from the ‘election’ of Kirpal Singh Badungar, Baldev Singh Kiampuri was elected as senior vice-president, Baba Buta Singh as junior vice-president and Amarjit Singh Chawla as the new general secretary of SGPC.
Yesterday, on the eve of the SGPC’s general house meeting, elected members of SAD authorized the Akali chief and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to nominate the new president and other office-bearers. Sukhbir had a closed door meeting with around 100 elected SGPC members in the Teja Singh Samundri Hall of the Golden Temple yesterday. The names of the new president and others were sealed in an envelope and conveyed to the general house, sources said.