Chandigarh: Harjinder Singh Dhami, Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) candidate, has been re-elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for a fifth consecutive term, in a boost to SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal ahead of next week’s Tarn Taran bypoll.
Of the 136 votes polled in the election held Monday, Dhami received 117 votes, beating the breakaway Akali Dal faction’s Mithu Singh Kahneke, who received 18 votes. One vote was declared invalid.
Last year, Dhami defeated Akali Dal rebel Bibi Jagir Kaur, getting 107 of the 142 votes polled. Kaur received 33 votes. The reduction of the rebel candidate’s vote this time points to a possible decline in the support base for the Akali Dal rebel group.
Kahneke, an SGPC member from Barnala, was the candidate of the newly formed Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjeet) led by Giani Harpreet Singh, former jathedar of the Akal Takht. Kahneke had turned rebel two years ago, alleging misappropriation of SGPC funds.
Monday’s election was crucial for the Akalis as it was held amid a tough multiple-cornered bypoll contest for the panthic (religious) assembly seat of Tarn Taran on 11 November. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal’s death on 27 June necessitated the byelection.
The SGPC, also called the mini parliament of the Sikhs, manages all gurdwaras in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. A crucial power centre in Punjab politics, it holds elections every year to select its head from among the members. Since the majority of SGPC members owe their allegiance to the SAD, these elections are generally a cakewalk for the Akali candidate.
However, last year, some Akali Dal leaders broke away from the party, challenging SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s leadership, leading to the creation of the breakaway faction, the SAD (Punar Surjeet), in August this year.
The rebel leaders include Bibi Jagir Kaur, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon and sitting MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali.
Congratulating Dhami for the victory, Badal told media persons Tuesday that this was the victory of the true panthic forces against “those who had been propped by the centre and the intelligence agencies” in Punjab to disrupt peace in the state. “SGPC members have fought against the might of these agencies,” he said.
Badal was hitting out at Giani Harpreet Singh, who has often faced allegations of “closeness” with the BJP.
Dhami expressed his gratitude to the Akal Purakh (Supreme Lord God), Badal, the party leadership, and all SGPC members, for re-announcing his name for the post of president.
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Tarn Taran bypoll
SAD has announced ‘Principal’ Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa as its candidate for the upcoming bypoll. The rebel faction has decided to support Mandeep Singh, the candidate announced by the radical Akali Dal Waris Punjab De (WPD).
Mandeep is the elder brother of jailed Sandeep Singh, also known as Sunny, who is facing trial in the 2022 murder case of Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri in Amritsar. Sunny is also an accused in the fatal attack on retired police inspector Suba Singh in Patiala Jail.
Apart from the SAD (WPD) and SAD (Punar Surjeet), Mandeep Singh also has the backing of other radical Sikh bodies, including the Sikh Youth Federation (Bhindranwala), Simranjit Singh Mann’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), and the All India Sikh Student Federation (AISSF).
Though the panthic vote is expected to be sharply divided, Dhami’s victory will send a clear message to Sikh voters that the panthic leadership is clearly standing with Sukhbir Badal.
The SGPC presidential election results have reinforced Badal’s control over the SGPC as well as his own party. Under constant attack since the Akalis went out of power in 2017, he has been the favourite whipping boy of Akali rebels, who have often pinned the blame of collective mistakes exclusively on his shoulders.
After a drubbing in the parliamentary elections last year, the Akali Dal rebel group launched a full-fledged attack on Badal and complained against him to the Akal Takht.
In August last year, the Akal Takht had found him guilty of religious misconduct in having brought down the position of the Sikhs and declared him a ‘tankhaiya’, or religious sinner.
In December, the Akal Takht jathedar and Giani Harpreet Singh, the then jathedar of Dam Dama Sahib, ordered Badal’s removal as the party’s head as “punishment” for the “sins” that he had been held guilty of having committed against the Sikh community. Giani Harpreet Singh was sacked by the SGPC in February.
Badal offered to resign following the Akal Takht’s verdict and the party accepted his resignation in January, but he was re-elected as the head by party delegates in April despite opposition from the rebel group, who termed his election a violation of the Akal Takht’s verdict.
‘Mini parliament’ of Sikhs
The SGPC is a statutory body created under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, a culmination of the gurdwara reform movement led by the Akalis in the early 1920s to free the gurdwaras from the control of corrupt mahants (hereditary managers of gurdwaras).
Under the Act, the SGPC is designed to be a democratically elected body tasked with administering and managing historical and other gurdwaras. At the core of the SGPC are 170 members elected by Sikhs from clearly defined geographical constituencies.
Although SGPC members’ elections are supposed to be held every five years, they have been conducted irregularly. The last SGPC elections were held in 2011. The delay in elections has come under criticism from various political parties, including the Congress and the AAP, in power in Punjab, in the past few years.
These parties allege that not having elections benefits the SAD as it continues to have control over Sikh institutions and wield authority in politics using these institutions despite being out of power in Punjab for the past 10 years.
Any baptised Sikh can stand for the polls to become a part of the SGPC. Every Sikh adult in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh with unshorn hair (keshdhari) is eligible to vote.
However, following litigation by sehajdharis (Sikhs who had shorn hair, which is against one of the basic tenets of Sikhism) who wanted voting rights, these elected members started functioning only in 2016. Their term ended in 2021.
The SGPC elections are conducted by the centre’s Gurdwara Election Commission. Retired High Court judge S.S. Saron was appointed as the Gurudwara election commissioner by the Centre in 2020 for the conduct of elections.
The process of updating electoral rolls ended in April this year, but the process was challenged by the SGPC, among others, in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the process has been stayed. Till the election of the new members, the same set of members elected in 2011 will continue.
Every year, these members elect a president, who in turn chooses an executive body. Usually, these elections take place in November. The SGPC president, an 11-member executive body, and office bearers are responsible for the day-to-day working of the committee.
Apart from the management of gurdwaras, the SGPC also takes up Sikh issues with the government in India and those abroad in case their rules and regulations threaten to compromise the ‘maryada‘ of any Sikh.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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