SGPC to press for summoning CM to Takht

[me moorakh mugadh]

SGPC to press for summoning CM to Takht

AMRITSAR: The demand for summoning Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh to Akal Takht for the alleged failure of his government to prevent the clashes in Talhan is likely to gain momentum during the SGPC executive committee meeting scheduled to be held at Kalgidhar Niwas, Chandigarh, on June 12.

SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar has already demanded Amarinder’s resignation on the issue. The SGPC general house has passed a resolution, urging the Akal Takht jathedar to summon Amarinder Singh to Akal Takht and hold him responsible for the alleged entry of the police into the Golden Temple complex during the SGPC elections last year.

SGPC executive members, who seem to have made up their mind to take on the Congress, are likely to target Amarinder in their next meeting, which in turn will give a boost to the sagging morale of the SAD. SGPC sources said that deliberations were on in SAD circles to use the authority of the Akal Takht jathedar to summon Amarinder.

Partap Singh Advocate, an SGPC executive member from Jalandhar, told Times News Network over telephone that the Congress government had totally failed to contain the violence. He alleged that the party was promoting forces inimical to peace.

Advocate, who is also one of the seven members of the sub-committee formed by the SGPC to probe into the incident, said that the probe report would be tabled at the SGPC executive committee meeting.

Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, another SGPC executive member, said the government should probe into the Talhan violence so that such incidents do not occur in future.

Prof Jodh Singh, editor-in-chief, Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, said that both the Punjab government and the SGPC were responsible for the clashes in Talhan. "If the administration was lax in checking the incidents, the SGPC, which failed to put across the message of Sikhism where there is no place for casteism, is equally to blame," he said.