Akali Dal Amritsar lashes out at SGPC

Ludhiana, Punjab: Members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) held a meeting today. They said the clash between Sikhs at Akal Takht on June 6 was unfortunate. They held the SGPC responsible for it.

Jaswant Singh Mann, secretary general of the party, said every Sikh had the right to voice his opinion at Akal Takht. “A few groups are trying to suppress and nip voices for their own dominance, which is not right,” he added. He also lambasted the existence of a task force there. “How can they form a task force? There is no provision for such an armed task force under the Gurdwara Act 1925,” he said.

He said the results of the SGPC elections were not satisfactory for the party, so they would be expanding the party. He added that the party was awaiting the Supreme Court’s verdict regarding the voting by Sehajdhari Sikhs in the SGPC elections in October.

“There are 33 crore Dalits, 22 crore Muslims, 2 crore Sikhs and 1 crore Christians. They should come together to counter Hindutva,” he alleged.

He said the party would contest the Assembly byelections on Patiala, Talwandi Sabo seats, he said. “If the Dhuri elections take place, they will contest the elections from there,” he said.

Source: The Tribune