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Makkar proves SGPC is a wing of
Badal Akali Dal
WSN Network
AMRITSAR: Often
facing criticism that the SGPC is being run as a wing of the
Shirmani Akali Dal led by Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir
Badal, the SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar has now put an official
stamp on all such allegations. He has actually directed that the
SGPC members affiliated with the Akali Dal should fan out to canvass
for not just the Akali Dal but also BJP candidates in Punjab. It is
not clear by what logic can Makkar ask SGPC members to canvass for
BJP candidates though Badal can tell his party members to go and
canvass for the devil if he wants. Of course he does that too. In an
exhortation delivered to the SGPC members, Makkar asked them to
“expose the Congress and how it has been working against the
interest of
Punjab and the Sikh community”.
Makkar’s plea comes within
hours after Akali Dal admitted Gurcharan Singh Galib, a three time
Congress MP and a Congress leadee for more than three decades into
the party. Galib will be the Akali Dal candidate from
Ludhiana, and Badal
did not care to explain how could a leader of the ‘eternal enemy of
the Sikhs’ party become not just acceptable but even its potential
MP within a minute of joining the party.
Makkar, probably
shamed by his own actions, said the members will not be campaigning
as SGPC members but as Akali Dal leaders. He said only those members
who had won on the SAD symbol had been asked to canvass in support
of the party. “There is no point mixing religion with politics,” he
said with a straight face. Sources said no one laughed but Makkar
did smile as he said it. Loud guffaws, said a cheeky SGPC member
later, were heard once the meeting was over. “I find nothing wrong
in SGPC members campaigning for the SAD,” Makkar later said, adding
a schedule would be sent to the members on the lines of which they
would campaign for the SAD candidates. “The Congress has been
dividing Sikhs on petty issues.
This has to be brought before the
electorate. The manner in which the Congress Government in Haryana
raked up the issue of a separate gurdwara managing committee will be
taken up with the people of Punjab,” he said. The SGPC chief claimed
that there had been a surge in development since the SAD-BJP
Government took over the reins in
Punjab. “All these things have to be projected in the right spirit,” he said.
He did not say how the SGPC was concerned with the upcoming malls or
shopping complexes. Of the 190 SGPC members, 160 were elected to the
committee from
Punjab, 11 from
Haryana and the rest were nominated from other states.
11
March 2009
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