SGPC president slams Hooda over gurdwara committee issue

Amritsar, Punjab: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar has accused Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his government of interfering in the religious affairs of the Sikhs by once again raiseing the issue of a separate gurdwara committee in Haryana.

Addressing the gathering a religious function at a gurdwara in Rohtak on Monday, Makkar pointed out that with assembly elections due in Haryana next year, Hooda is trying to woo Sikh voters with the promise of forming a Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC). Makkar referred to the recent statements of the chief minister promising the Sikhs of his state a separate committee to manage the affairs of gurdwaras in Haryana.

“The chief minister and the Congress had made the same promise during the election campaign in the last assembly polls. Now once again the issue is being made a part of the Congress campaign in Haryana”, he claimed.

Makkar accused Hooda of hatching a conspiracy to divide the Sikhs by promising the Sikh community in his state a separate gurdwara committee.

Such conspiracies have been hatched by the Congress from time to time to create divisions in the community, he alleged.

Reminding the chief minister of the outcome of SGPC general elections held in 2011, Makkar said that all the candidates that had the support of the Congress in Haryana were defeated by the nominees of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

He said that Hooda’s “stooges”, Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Didar Singh Nalvi, the self proclaimed president and secretary respectively of the so-called HSGPC, too were rejected by the Sikhs of Haryana.

“The defeat of Jhinda and Nalvi and others like them, should have come as an eyeopener for Hooda,” he said.

Source: HT