Sehajdhari Bill: Capt terms move regressive, SAD elated

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 25

The passage of the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha today triggered a political slugfest in Punjab. While the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) hailed the step to debar Sehajdhari Sikhs from participating in the SGPC elections, the Congress said the move was aimed at fragmenting the Sikh community.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh termed the amendment as most unfortunate, regressive and retrograde. “This will simply mean slamming your door on hundreds and thousands of Sikhs and dividing the community,” he said in a statement.

Amarinder equated this move by the Akalis with their demand for Punjabi ‘suba’ which ended in fragmenting the state. “For the narrow sectarian and partisan interests, they slashed Punjab to pieces… They have now repeated the formula to retain their control over the SGPC by virtually throwing out a majority of the Sikhs,” he said.

The PPCC president said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), running under the control of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, should have spent its energy and resources on reforms and educating the youth rather than taking the easy way out.

The former Chief Minister reiterated that every Sikh who believes in the tenets of Sikhism must have the right to vote in the SGPC elections. “It is an irony that the democratic legislative procedure has been misused to disenfranchise a large section of society from exercising their democratic right to vote,” he observed.

In a press release issued here, Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the Bill had righted a wrong committed against the Sikhs. She said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress tried in vain to weaken the Sikh community by opposing the Bill’s passage. The Akali MP said the passage of the amendment Bill was a victory for the SAD and the Sikh community.

Welcoming the development, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said, “The Congress and AAP got exposed as anti-Sikh parties in Parliament by opposing the Bill.”

Voices for and against the amendment

"It is a historic moment for the Sikh community. I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Parliament for passing the Bill" Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab CM

"The amendment is most unfortunate and retrograde. It will mean slamming your door on thousands of Sikhs and dividing the community" Capt Amarinder Singh, PPCC president

"The SGPC is a premier institution of the Sikhs and only those who practise Sikh tenets reserve the right to vote or contest its polls" Avtar Singh Makkar, SGPC president

"This move will deny voting right to around 70 lakh Sikhs. It’s the RSS agenda pursued in connivance with the Badals’ Akali Dal for political gains" PS Ranu, sSehajdhari sikh party chief