Release of Bandi Singhs priority, won’t mind if BJP takes credit: SGPC

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Wednesday said one of their main objectives was to secure the release of the Bandi Singhs and it was “none of their concern” if the BJP wanted to take credit for it.

The statement by SGPC general secretary Kulwant Singh Mannan came days after Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu told a TV news channel that he won’t oppose the release of the Bandi Singhs — the Sikh prisoners languishing in jails despite the completion of their sentences.

Mannan made the comments over the phone while on his way to Assam to participate in religious events commemorating 350 years of the martyrdom of Guru Teg Bahadur.

Akal Takht officiating Jathedar Giani Kuldip Singh Gargaj and SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami also accompanying him.

The remarks by Bittu assume significance as his grandfather and former Punjab CM Beant Singh was assassinated by Sikh hardliners in 1995.

The convicts in the case, including Balwant Singh Rajoana, are still languishing in jails. Rajoana, a convict on death row, is currently lodged in the Patiala Central Jail.

Earlier, the Centre had faced criticism for the continued delay in deciding on his mercy petition.

Bittu’s statement is being interpreted in political quarters as an attempt to woo Sikh electorates by the BJP.

When asked that the BJP might try to gain political mileage out of the release ahead of the Assembly polls, Mannan said the SGPC was solely guided by the spirit of ending Bandi Singhs’ agonising long incarceration.

He said the Sikh body had been spearheading the movement to secure their release for the past 10 years “with little success”. He said several attempts to meet Central leaders to seek clemency did not elicit a positive response.