Embarrassing moment for Akal Takht officiating Jathedar Giani Gargaj

Akal Takht officiating Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj faced an embarrassing situation in the presence of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) officials and others at a programme held on the premises of the Akal Takht today. A Sikh activist prevented him from presenting a ‘siropa’ (robe of honour), lodging his dissent over accepting him as ‘Jathedar’.

The ‘Akhand Path’ was organised by SGPC-sponsored Akhand Kirtani Jatha at Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Gurbax Singh Jee, located just behind the Akal Takht to recite prayers in commemoration of Bhai Mehal Singh Babbar, general secretary of Babbar Khalsa outfit, who died at Sri Nankana Sahib in Pakistan recently.

After the culmination of ‘bhog’ today, as SGPC secretary Partap Singh handed over a ‘siropa’ to Giani Gargaj to be presented to the kin of Babbar, a Sikh activist, Jarnail Singh Sakhira, interrupted saying ‘Jathedar Saheb eh na karo… Tuhanu quom Jathedar nahib mandi’ (Jathedar Saheb, don’t do it as the community doesn’t recognise you as Jathedar).

Instantly, Giani Gargaj obliged humbly with folded hands. However, the situation was defused only when Granthi of Golden Temple Giani Baljit Singh was asked to present the siropas.

Justifying his protest, Sakhira said that the ‘Panth’ only recognised Jagtar Singh Hawara (the assassin of former CM Beant Singh, currently serving life imprisonment at Tihar Jail, New Delhi) as the ‘Jathedar’ of the Akal Takht and in his absence, Dhyan Singh Mand was the “acting” Jathedar.

Both Hawara and Mand were nominated during the controversial Sarbat Khalsa (a deliberative assembly of Sikhs) held at Chabba village (Amritsar district) in November 2015 as ‘Jathedars’, parallel to the then Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, during whose tenure the flip-flop decision of exoneration of the Dera Sirsa cult was taken.

Sakhira, one of the main organisers of the 2015 Sarbat Khalsa, claimed that any ‘Jathedar’ nominated by the SGPC at the behest of the ‘Badal clan’ were rejected by them and the ‘Panth’. “How could Giani Gargaj give siropa when we, as part of the Panth, never acknowledged his appointment? When I raised the objection, he also reciprocated to it,” he said.

He said that in the absence of any ‘vidhi vidhan’ (principles) of appointing Jathedars, the SGPC played like a puppet at the hands of Shiromani Akali Dal. “Only those who toe their line were appointed? Those who opposed were shown the door in a derogatory manner as has happened recently,” he said.

When asked if he and his supporters were opposing the SGPC’s decision on appointing Giani Gargaj only after removing Giani Raghbir Singh and the two other Jathedars — Giani Sultan Singh (Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib) and Giani Harpreet Singh (Takht Sri Damdama Sahib), as was being done by the Damdami Taksal and other supporting Sikh bodies, he said, “Not only Gargaj, we never accept any Jathedar appointed by the SGPC. Neither do we acknowledge any Taksal and its associated bodies’ protest. We have nothing to do with it,” he said.