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Facing Panthic Rage, SGPC Buckles Down, Corrects Sehajdhari Sikh
definition
SGPC Executive Decides to Submit New Affidavit, Will Fix
Responsibility
Some heads likely to roll, but will real culprits be exposed?
Sach Kanwal Singh
 AMRITSAR:
Faced with unprecedented panthic rage, a beleagured SGPC on Sunday
finally decided to withdraw its controversial affidavit in the
Punjab and Haryana High Court defining the Sehajdhari Sikh in an objectionable
manner and will now submit a new affidavit that will make it clear
that anyone who cuts, trims or shaves his hair cannot be a
Sehajdhari Sikh.
The SGPC executive which met here at the Guru Nanak Niwas was
convened to discuss the issue after a whole range of Panthic
organizations including Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani), Shiromani Khalsa
Panchayat, Sant Samaj, Damdami Taksal, Chief Khalsa Diwan, Delhi
Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, American Gurdwara Prabandhak
Committee, Sikh Youth of America, and many others took strong
exception to the SGPC overturning its own resolutions and ignoring
the unanimous Panthic view on Sehajdhari Sikh definition.
The SGPC faced a real possibility of facing in court a broad
spectrum of Sikh bodies and would have been seen along with the
ruling Akali Dal as an entity intent upon corrupting Sikh ethos and
theological basis.
Eager now to rid itself of the opprobrium, considering the
gravity of the conspiracy, the SGPC executive also set up a
three-member committee to probe and fix responsibility for filing
the earlier controversial affidavit against the advice of Sikhism
experts. The panel comprising Raghujit Singh Virk, Kewal Singh Badal
and Rajinder Singh Mehta immediately began its work.
Sources said the SGPC may make some minor functionary like
Harbeant Singh a scapegoat while the real actors in the drama were
the father-son duo of Hardev Singh Mattewal-Pavit Mattewal and
Anurag Singh. While Makkar is likely to win some appreciation among
the Sikh community for not being hard-headed and buckling before
superior advice and wisdom, his real success will lie in making sure
that structural changes are made in decision making so that such
unsavory situations can be avoided.
The SGPC’s impugned affidavit in the High Court virtually
enabled anyone to call himself a Sehajdhari Sikh, continue to
cut/shave/trim his/her hair for an indefinite period and put a bar
on cutting hair only when someone decided to become a Keshadhari
Sikh.
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SGPC Executive
decision a fait accompli
WSN has learnt that the decision to withdraw the earlier
affidavit and file a new one was taken after SGPC President
Avtar Singh Makkar became aware of the ramifications of the move
during his visit to the
United States
where activists with no personal axe to grind briefed him of the
developments.
By the time he returned to
Punjab, many
Sikh organizations had already spoken out and a seven-day
deadline by Sant Samaj and Damdami Taksal was looming. Even as
the Badal. Sr.-Badal Jr. duo sat on the stage at Fatehgarh
Sahib on the Jor Mela Day on December 25, preparations were on
for a meeting at the nearby Mata Gujri College. Badal directed
SGPC secretary Dalmegh Singh, Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, his
advisor Daljeet Singh Cheema and Gurdev Badal to proceed to Mata
Gujri College. It was here that Makkar announced the decision to
withdraw the definition, thus rendering the Dec 28 Sunday
meeting only a formality. It was on the basis of inside
knowledge of this meeting that the World Sikh News was able to
declare beforehand that the affidavit was likely to be
withdrawn. Many in this meeting did question Makkar about Anurag
Singh’s credentials. |
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The World Sikh News, which broke the story and then led the
coverage as well as the campaign from the front, received thousands
of responses from Sikhs and even non-Sikhs from across the world on
the issue. The huge response also led to
an online petition on the issue to force the SGPC to hold back
and withdraw the impugned affidavit. The petition will continue till
this subject is concluded affirmatively on the side of Sikh
interests. The WSN will bring out the role played by different
dramatis personae in the coming days.
Sunday's
meeting, chaired by its president Avtar Singh Makkar, did a
re-think and decided that it was wrong to tamper with the unanimous
view and resolution of the expert committee that had defined the
Sehajdhari Sikh in keeping with the Panthic view. The seven-member
panel of experts had given its view which was tinkered with and
distorted by vested interests and an affidavit was filed that
totally overturned the experts' view.
Punjab Advocate General
H S Mattewal and Sikh History Research Board chairman Anurag
Singh were seen as the key people behind submitting the corrupted
version of the definition. Anurag Singh was one of the seven experts
and the only one who had refused to sign the collectively passed
resolution of the expert panel.
Earlier, SGPC top brass, including its president Makkar, had
resorted to brash talk and blatant obfuscation but the strong
challenge faced by Makkar on his US visit coupled with the seven-day
deadline set by the Sant Samaj and Damdami Taksal to withdraw the
affidavit or face them in the court seemed to have hammered the
message home.
 Within days of the World Sikh News breaking the story and
exposing the sinister attempt by forces within the Akali Dal and
SGPC of corrupting the definition of Sehajdhari, Panthic
organizations had been spitting fire and were in rage over the
seemingly RSS influence on Sikh affairs under the current
dispensation.
In
San Jose,
Makkar got caught in a cleft-stick of arguments marshaled by the Bay
Area Sikh leaders, and when Jasjeet Singh read out some
objectionable aspects of the Sehajdhari definition, Makkar admitted
that he was clueless and will have to apprise himself of the facts.
On his return, he seemed to have contacted some Sikh experts,
including those who were part of the decision making on the
Sehajdhari issue.
Many Sikh holy men were now planning to bring thousands of
Sikh followers to the High Court on the next date of hearing on
January 16, a situation which would have clearly depicted the SGPC
and the Parkash Singh Badal-Sukhbir Singh Badal led party as
virtually being on the other side and acting as stooges of the
BJP-RSS.
Most of the seven experts had dissociated themselves from the
affidavit. Even SGPC general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur has
admitted that the affidavit was wrong. Kiranjot Kaur, SGPC member
and a member of the expert panel, has also condemned the definition
as had Gurcharanjit Singh Lamba, community affairs expert and member
of the SGPC-appointed panel. Suba Singh, principal of
Shaheed
Sikh Missionary College, Amritsar is also unhappy with the
definition. Lamba was one of the most proactive in leading the
campaign against the affidavit.
The American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (AGPC) had also
decided to challenge the stance of the SGPC in the
Punjab and Haryana
High Court. Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) leadership including Bhai
Daljit Singh Bittu, Harpal Singh Cheema and others had condemned the
affidavit.
28 December
2008
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