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Sangat Ji, Now Pardhan
Sahib will elect Pardhan Sahib! Waheguru!
All
it takes is one anonymous letter. Take a piece of paper, scribble
some rubbish on it and hang a dirty tale, and you can have the
President of the Min-Parliament of the Sikh
Panth go cringing to Sukhbir Singh Badal, unmoved and unhinged by
the public humiliation. "Exonerated," he said after the meeting.
The
SGPC is to elect its president this week, and there are wide
indications that Avtar Singh Makkar may get to keep the job once
again. If Falstaff can become King once, then which fool can stop
another go at the hot seat? But some fool did try. He wrote an
anonymous letter and leveled allegations against Makkar that many
are already aware of. But in the current paradigm of Panth's
leadership, only a fool can believe that allegations of corruption,
moral turpitude or simple inefficiency can be any reckoning in the
eyes of Pitama Badals.
When they wanted to get rid of Prof Manjit Singh from the
Jathedarship, the then SGPC president said such were the
allegations, so grossly shameful, that these can't even be mentioned
in the Executive Meeting of the SGPC because one woman was also a
member. Bibi Kiranjot Kaur at that time did not protest that as a
woman, she can listen to any allegation, no matter how gross, if the
panth has entrusted her with a responsibility. How do women judges
listen to allegations in cases of moral turpitude?
But
the panth watched as a Jathedar, who had once remained the Jathedar
of Sri Akal Takht Sahib also, was removed in most unceremonious
circumstances.
But
then, Prof Manjit Singh had also remained silent when Jathedar
Gurcharan Singh Tohra was sacked from the SGPC merely for demanding
that Parkash Singh Badal should not become the sole power center.
Today, Sukhbir Singh Badal himself claims what Tohra Sahib had then
merely alluded to.
The
SGPC's plus Rs 200 crore budgets are passed in less than one minute.
No discussion, and no opposition is brooked. Across the board, the
Akali Dal's top, middle, low brass remains silent.
A
new move has started, that of corporatizing the SGPC. It has Sukhbir
Singh Badal's name written all over. He wants to corporatize the
party, andd he says it. Ditto for the SGPC. So now he is looking for
a Chief Secretary for the SGPC, a Finance Secretary, a Chief
Security Officer etc etc. With a different leadership, perhaps we
may have believed that the step could be aimed towards some reforms,
but with the current leadership, the hope cannot overcome the bitter
experience the community has had already.
Just as you would be reading this edition of the WSN, Parkash Singh
Badal will be holding a meeting of his party’s members in the SGPC
on November 22. On the day of the election, either a ‘lifafa’
will reach the gathering, or some lifafebazi will be done.
Badal’ handpicked man will be again SGPC chief. In a democratically
run body, it is okay if the majority party has its man. But it still
leaves many aspects to ponder over.
What about intra party democracy? Whatever happened to debate? Do
the individual SGPC members have no opinion on anything? Not even on
how their leader should not jump out of envelopes year after year?
Why are budgets not discussed? Why a President rushes to Sukhbir
Badal rather than to the SGPC members? Should we have a whip at all
in the SGPC house? Should the process of elections be secret by its
very nature? Remember, you are dealing with the faith of crores and
the money of the sangat. And you elect the SGPC president in
the presence of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. In this 300th
year of the Guru, will there be a fear of the Akal Purakh? Or have
Badals appropriated that slot to themselves too?
21
November, 2007
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