550th Gurpurb: SGPC again asks CM to name members

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 12

The Congress-led state government and the SGPC are still not on the same page when it comes to celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Yet again, the SGPC has scheduled a coordination committee meeting on September 17 to finalise the programmes and asked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to send two government representatives to complete the quorum.

The function has been scheduled at Sultanpur Lodhi, where Guru Nanak spent 14 years of his life, on November 12.

Terming the CM’s attitude as non-cooperative, SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal stated that the Congress government had been defying the directions of Akal Takht to celebrate the occasion jointly. He said the joint programme never implied a programme to be led by the CM.

“Instead of preaching the SGPC about its ‘limits’ and the entitlement to conduct religious occasions, the CM should abide by directions of Akal Takht, rising above the party lines. We tried to coordinate with the state government so that a five-member committee could be constituted, but despite repeated reminders and personal meeting, we did not get the two names from the government side. We have again scheduled a meeting on September 17, let’s see how serious the government takes it?” he said.

The CM had recently stated that the government was ready to support the SGPC for any event that it had been planning to hold within the gurdwara premises, yet the state would hold main event outside the premises. He had stated that the SGPC, being a religious body, had the jurisdiction of holding the event at gurdwara under its control and rather, the SGPC should cooperate with the government in conducting joint state-level programme to mark the occasion.

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