Harmohinder Singh Chatha, Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Didar Singh Nalwi Excommunicated
AMRTISAR SAHIB, PUNJAB - In a controversial move to appease the Badal dominated Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh issued an excommunication edict against a Sikh minister in the Haryana government and two other senior Sikh leaders for forging a separate Gurdwara Management in Haryana.
Those excommunicated include Finance Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, and senior Sikh leaders Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Didar Singh Nalwi.
The edict has ordered that no Sikh should have any association with the excommunicated leaders.
The Haryana assembly Friday passed a bill under which a new Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) will be set up to manage gurdwaras in the state.
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill, 2014, received the assent of Governor Jagannath Pahadia Monday.
The gurdwaras were so far managed by the Amritsar-based SGPC that had opposed the move of the Congress government in Haryana, headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for a separate committee.
Chatha headed a committee which recommended the setting up of a separate gurdwara management body.
Chatha, Jhinda and Nalwi were called by the Akal Takht to discuss the controversial issue of a separate gurdwara management body in Haryana last week but they did not appear.
Following this, Harnam Singh Dhumma, head of the Damdami Taksal Mehta, filed a complaint against the Haryana Sikh leaders.
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar welcomed the Akal Takht decision but radical Sikh group Dal Khalsa termed the edict as "unprincipled and unacceptable".
Dal Khalsa head H.S. Dhami and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said the edict "had the imprint of Badals". They said the Badal duo -- Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal - were using the Akal Takht to fix their political adversaries.
"The father-son (Badals) have made the jathedar (chief) of Akal Takht as their subservient and the SGPC as an extension counter of the Akali Dal," they said in a statement.
