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Haryana separate body lobby sets 30
days deadline
WSN Network
KARNAL:
Confrontation is
brewing faster than expected. At the PM's intervention, the ruling
Akali Dal of Punjab had called off the August 30 rally in Karnal but
those demanding a separate Sikh body for Haryana went ahead with
their power show and set a deadline of 30 days to either concede the
demand or they would take over the Sikh gurdwaras forcibly. Backing
the Haryana lobbyists for separate SGPC were, apart from the
Congress, SAD(A) president Simranjit Singh Mann, former Akal Takht
jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode and Ravi Inder Singh. Delhi Akali Dal
leader H S Sarna also addressed the rally.
Setting up of a
separate body was a long-pending demand, but the Bhupinder Singh
Hooda government was dilly-dallying on the issue, leaders of the
self-styled Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (HSGPC) said.
This was friendly fire of course. Hooda is backing the demand
wholeheartedly and Badals in Punjab are itching to exploit the
situation by harping on the Congress versus Sikhs line even as they
themselves secularise the polity no end and take away the spirit of
the basis of Akali Dal's formation.
"We are giving a
month's time to the state government. If our demand is not met, we
will forcibly take over control of gurdwaras in the state," said
Jagdish Singh and Didar Singh Nalvi, president and general secretary
respectively of the self-proclaimed HSGPC.
The "Sarbat
Khalsa" rally, which set up a 45-member body to decide the future
course of action, was attended by Sikhs from Punjab, Haryana, HP and
Delhi. Sikh leaders from Himachal Pradesh raised the demand for a
similar body in their own state. Shiromani Akali Dal of Chief
Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been opposing the move for a
separate body, terming it as a conspiracy to divide the Sikhs and
weaken the SGPC.
10 September 2008
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