Chandigarh, August 21, :The allegations of the Shiromani Akali Dal holding Smt. Sonia Gandhi responsible for cropping up the issue of separate SGPC in Haryana,on one hand and the statement of SGPC President Sh. Avtar Singh Makkar over the assurance given by the Prime Minister to effectively intervene to sort out the issue of creation of separate SGPC for Haryana on the other hand is the manifestation of the colossal paradox created by Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP Leadership at village Longowal Yesterday.
The situation created by skewed vision of some vested political interests in the State of Jammu & Kashmir in flaring up the issue of land allotment to the Amarnath Shrine Board seems to have left no impact on the sensibility of those who have shown indecent haste to jump to the conclusion of accusing the Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi and the Union government of “direct interference in the internal affairs of the Khalsa Panth and the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC)”. First of all, let us not forget that this is not a political issue. The issue has been raised by the members of Sikh community from Haryana with the Government of Haryana and it relates to the sentiments of the Sikhs in Haryana.
Congress party is fully conscious of the fact that any political interference in this issue will snowball into the kind of volatile situation being faced by the government in J&K and also has the potential to endanger the peace and harmony in both the States, Punjab & Haryana.
Ever since Mrs. Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress, the relations between the Sikhs of Punjab and Haryana have been very cordial and worth emulating. The Shiromani Akali Dal & Mr. Raj Nath Singh of BJP, should know that the proper forum to address this issue is the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, which came into existence after a long and painful struggle with the Britishers and had been working very effectively in managing the Sikh shrines. I have also gone through the contents of the Nehru-Tara Singh Pact very carefully, that arrived at the meeting between Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru then Prime Minister and Master Tara Singh Ji then President of Shiromani Akali Dal on 12th April, 1959 at 5 PM which lasted for about 85 minutes and in its essence is a sage advice “… there should be no Government interference in the religious affairs.” However it is pertinent to mention here that on 22nd of April 1959, just ten days later general House of the SGPC was summoned at Amritsar, that was attended by 154 members of the SGPC and unanimously passed a resolution rejecting the Nehru-Tara Singh pact, Mr. Prem Singh Lalpura then President of the SGPC, presided over the meeting and Singh-Sahib Giani Achhar Singh ji the then head priest of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib performed the Aradas. Therefore it is irrelevant now to make any reference to Nehru- Tara Singh pact.
The SGPC came into being to ensure “implementation of the policy of non-interference in Gurudwara management and to consider any complaint of such interference”. Therefore, instead of taking political mileage and issuing political statements, it would be prudent for Core Committee of SAD , to first go through the pages of History of the SGPC. Let the issue be solved through the mechanism of the SGPC, which may constitute a sub-committee of the Members of the SGPC both from Punjab and Haryana to work under the umbrella of SGPC to find out a solution suiting the aspirations of the Sikhs living in Haryana but at the same time keeping the matrix of sanctity which sustains the existence of the SGPC which has a long history of sacrifices made by the Sikhs in the past.
There is no point in making generalized statements accusing Smt. Sonia Gandhi for abrogating the essence and spirit of the Nehru-Tara Singh Pact which was rejected by the general house of the SGPC within two weeks ,that means even before the ink of signatures was dried The Congress Party respects highly the sacrifices made by the Sikhs in the Gurudwara Reform movement, which ultimately led to the formation of the SGPC under the Sikh Gurudwaras Act 1925. The Congress Party is least inclined to meddle into the affairs of the SGPC. I would rather suggest to the SAD leadership that Instead of dealing this highly emotive issue from political angle, the SGPC should handle it most effectively in a subtle manner, especially when they themselves had sought the meaningful intervention of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Smt Sonia Gandhi is a leader with sagacious vision and has always endeavoured for greater inter-faith harmony. I would therefore suggest to the leadership of the SAD and SGPC that they should satisfy the Sikhs of Haryana on their demand for separate SGPC for Haryana, rather than blaming and passing the buck of their failures to the Congress.