Sikh leaders perform ‘sewa’ in penance

AMRITSAR: As part of another ‘tankhah’ (religious punishment) pronounced by the Akal Takht on April 17 and atonement for seeking support of Dera Sirsa head prior to the Assembly election, the 21 ‘gursikh’ leaders today cleaned up the parikrama of the Golden Temple during the wee hours.

Sikh leaders clean the floor at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 27

As part of another ‘tankhah’ (religious punishment) pronounced by the Akal Takht on April 17 and atonement for seeking support of Dera Sirsa head prior to the Assembly election, the 21 ‘gursikh’ leaders today cleaned up the parikrama of the Golden Temple during the wee hours.

According to the information, the Sikh leaders would also perform ‘sewa’ at the Langar Hall for two hours tomorrow, followed by ‘joda sewa’ (cleaning shoes of devotees) the other day. Last evening, they had swept the passage leading to the Golden Temple from Gurdwara Saragarhi heading towards the Ghanta Ghar side-main entrance to the shrine around 6 pm.

After completing the sewa, they would offer Rs 5,100 to the ‘golak’ and Rs 501 ‘karah parshad’ while at the time of ‘ardas’ to be performed at the Akal Takht for atonement.

As per the directions of the Akal Takht, a panel of the SGPC had held 44 leaders guilty of violating the Akal Takht’s 2007 hukumnama. The guilty leaders were classified into two categories — Gursikhs and Patits (those who believe in Guru Granth Sahib, but seldom observe the Khalsa code of conduct).

The 21 Gursikh leaders who performed ‘sewa’ today included 20 from SAD: Darbara Singh Guru, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Jeetmohinder Singh Sidhu, Ajit Singh Shant, Varinder Kaur, Inderiqbal Singh Atwal, Mantar Singh Brar, Parkash Singh Bhatti, Gurpreet Singh Raju, Parmbans Singh, Kanwaljit Singh Rozibarkandi, Harpreet Singh Kotbhai, Iqbal Singh Jhunda, Ishar Singh Meharbaan, Gobind Singh Longowal, Ranjit Singh Talwandi, Hari Singh Nabha and Didar Singh Bhatti. Congress’ Ajitinder Singh Mofar also falls in this category. The 18 ‘patit’ ones were told to perform sewa for 10 days (one hour every day) at gurdwaras located in the vicinity of their constituencies as part of their atonement.

While former SAD MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali was let off after he submitted a clarification before the five high priests, the fate of other four leaders, including Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Congress), Janmeja Singh Sekhon (SAD), Ajaib Singh Bhatti (Congress) and Arjan Singh Badal (Congress), who could not turn up then, would be decided later by the Akal Takht.