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Sikh groups enact Mahabharata in
Kurukshetra over gurdwara
WSN Network
 KURUKSHETRA:
Last week, a group of Sikhs led by proactive supporters of a
separate SGPC for Haryana ousted the SGPC employees from the
historic Chhavin Patshahi Gurdwara in Kurukshetra and announced
control of the shrine, vowing to repeat it all over Haryana on
November 1 if the state government failed to announce the promised
Sikh shrine managing body independent of the SGPC. With tensions and
tempers raised, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar appeared to be
preparing for a massive showdown, asked hundreds of SGPC employees
to be ready to move in and snatch back the control and himself
landed in Kurukshetra.
With some police
intervention and persuasion, the adhoc HSGPC Jagdish Singh Jhinda
who had led the operation vacated the shrine, but clearly something
is seriously wrong with the way the gurdwara management model is
going.
Neither Jhinda's
actions brought glory to the quom, nor has the SGPC or the Akali Dal
leadership acted in examplary fashion. Jhinda said his group had
only taken over control of the shrine as a symbolic gesture to press
for the demand for creation of a separate body to look after Sikh
shrines in Haryana but Makkar called the move an extreme
provocation.
True, Makkar was
somewhat justified in his action, but he remained silent on the
large issue of the failure of the clergy, the SGPC, the Akali Dal
and the panthic bodies in engaging with the various layers of the
problem.
For eight hours,
the Jhinda group remained in control of the gurdwara. There were
allegations that there was violation of the maryada and a granthi
sitting in the presence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji was pushed away.
Now, the clergy,
that had met in an emergency meeting, has summoned Jhinda and his
associates to the Akal Takht on September 19. The SGPC has deployed
its Task Force at the Kurukshetra gurdwara, the Akali Dal has asked
the Hooda government of Haryana to arrest all those who had taken
control of the gurdwara, the police has registered a case against
Jhinda, while many Haryana Akali leaders have lined behind Jhinda on
the issue.
The panthic men
are back to bickering and pulling each other down and enough space
is being created for others to fish in troubled waters. It is a
cycle that the Quom has seen earlier and is doomed to repeat once
again.
Jhinda has said
the programme to take over all SGPC-controlled shrines in Haryana
would continue if the State Government did not honour its assurance
to create HSGPC on November 1. There were at one stage reports that
activists of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) from Punjab and Haryana
were moving towards Kurukshetra to regain control of the shrine.
Traffic on the Kurukshetra-Pehowa road was diverted.
Jhinda says he
vacated the shrine after a telephonic conversation with the Chief
Minister BS Hooda who assured him of formation of a separate body
for Sikhs in Haryana before November 1.
Earlier, SGPC
vice-president Raghujit Singh Virk had arrived here from Delhi and
discussed the matter with Ambala police range IG K K Sandhu.Virk
had warned the Kurukshetra district administration and the HSGPC
leaders to get the gurudwara premises vacated or Sikh sangats would
take charge of it.
16
September 2009
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