SGPC’s general house budget meet likely to be stormy affair

Amid row over Takht Jathedars’ appointment and removal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) general house meeting, scheduled to present the budget proposals for the 2025-2026 fiscal, is likely to be a stormy affair.

The reason behind it is that the Damdami Taksal, Sant Samaj, Nihang and other Sikh organisations have drawn a programme to march to the SGPC, compelling it to roll back the new appointments of Takht Jathedars and reinstate the earlier ones. They have put up banners to urge Sikh activists to join their protest.

Also, speculations are rife about the participation of newly appointed Takht Jathedars and the Golden Temple’s head granthi under the existing circumstances.

It would be a testing time for SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami to convene the meeting of the general house, which consists of around 154 members, scheduled for Friday at Teja Singh Samundri Hall. This is the first meeting of the house being held after Dhami withdrew his resignation. Besides the gurdwara, education and health management issues, the most important resolution to be presented for discussion would be framing the policy on appointment, jurisdiction and relieving of the Takht Jathedars.

Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa ‘Dhuma’, chief of Damdami Taksal and Sant Samaj, said a huge Panthic cavalcade would take out a ‘rosh march’ and proceed towards the SGPC office during its budget meeting session. “We will hold a peaceful protest outside Teja Singh Samundri Hall and ask the SGPC members to raise their voice against the ‘anti-Panthic’ decision of the removal and appointment of Takht Jathedars by the SGPC in an arbitrary manner,” he said.