Congress Scared To Play With Fire

[Azaad]

Facing a backlash over the proposed separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Haryana, the Congress-led UPA government has made it clear to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that it was not in favour of setting up a body that can result in communal tension among Sikhs, especially in Punjab.

In a separate development, a group of ten MPs, including Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, Naresh Gujral, Sher Singh Ghubaya, SS Ahluwalia and Tarlochan Singh, today met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to intervene in the matter and ask the Haryana government to not go ahead with its plan to set up a separate SGPC.

Naresh Gujral, while talking to the Tribune, said the delegation requested the PM that he could invite Hooda and Parkash Singh Badal to have a talk with them over the issue.

Meanwhile, sources said the central leadership of the Congress was alarmed at the developments in the past few days. Notably, Hooda had told the media in Chandigarh on July 31 that the HS Chatha committee report recommending a separate SGPC in the state was being legally examined. Since the SGPC is the final authority on deciding matters of Sikhs, the Central government was not keen on “playing with fire”, said a Congress leader. Sources said the Union Home Ministry will be asked not to issue a notification for creating a separate SGPC even if Haryana insists and sends its request.

The Centre is also studying the legal aspects as to how it could stop any such move to set up a separate body. The final notification in this case has to be issued by the Home Ministry.