Clarify stand on Sehajdharis
Monday, 05/09/2011
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Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday asked the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal to clarify their stand about the Sehajdhari Sikhs.
Capt Amarinder asked, “Tell people of Punjab whether you consider them Sikhs or not and if yes why you are opposed to their voting rights for SGPC”. Capt Amarinder remarked, Sukhbir’s recent statements only vindicated his stand that the father-son duo have lost their mental balance. “First they wanted a CBI inquiry into the Sehajdhari voting issue and when I endorsed their demand, they are asking me to use my influence to get a judicial probe done”.
He said, ‘’I would welcome the judicial probe provided it probed the role of all of us, me, Badal and Sukhbir to find out the truth and let Badal write and recommend to the Prime Minister to appoint a judicial commission for that.’’ Coming back to the issue of voting rights for Sehajdharis, he pointed out, SGPC was the apex parliament of Sikhs. “How can you claim to represent the apex parliament when you deny more than half of the Sikh voters their franchise?” he asked, while pointing out, of the 1.22 crore total Sikh voters, 62 lakhs have been excluded from the SGPC elections on the pretext of being Sehajdharis and others.
The former chief minister added that earlier also during the Punjabi Suba movement, Akalis in sole pursuit of their sectarian and parochial agenda pressed for the breakup of Punjab into three states. “Earlier they weakened Punjab politically, socially and economically as well and now they are trying to repeat the same mistake by breaking up the Sikh religion for their own vested interests to have control over SGPC”, he said.
Reacting to Sukhbir’s charge about his stakes in SGPC elections, he asserted, “Unlike you, I have no stakes in SGPC elections. Rejecting the charges of having influenced former Punjab Advocate General Harbhagwan Singh, Capt Amarinder siad , “Unlike you, I don’t use and abuse my advocates general not even while in power, not to speak of when out of power”.
