SGPC members seek action against SAD working panel

Seeking action against the Shiromani Akali Dal working committee, a delegation of present and former SGPC members supporting rebel SAD leaders met Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh on Thursday.

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They said the SAD working committee had failed to abide by the edict (Hukamnama) pronounced by five Sikh high priests on December 2 in which senior SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal was awarded “tankhah” (religious punishment) and former Akali ministers and the party’s core committee members were held guilty of religious misconduct for taking controversial decisions during SAD’s tenure from 2007 to 2017.

They said the working committee had adopted dilly dallying attitude in implementing the Akal Takht’s orders.

The delegation, comprising SGPC members Manjit Singh, Satwinder Singh, Amrik Singh Shahpur and others, submitted a memorandum to Giani Rabhbir Singh and said the holiest Sikh temporal seat had ordered the working committee to accept the resignation of Sukhbir Badal and other SAD leaders and submit a report to the Akal Takht within three days.

Nevertheless, the working committee had neither called a meeting on the issue nor accepted the resignations of Badal and others. It also failed to submit a report to the Akal Takht.

They termed the constitution of a sub-committee to probe into the allegations levelled against Jathedar Damdama Sahib Giani Harpreet Singh as “unauthorised” and urged Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh to declare that null and void. “How can the SGPC probe a Jathedar when they are not its employees,” they said.