‘Haryana Sikhs don’t want Badal running their shrines’
Monday, 30/06/2014
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
CAPT ACCUSES CHIEF MINISTER OF TRYING TO DISTORT FACTS
PATIALA: Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, on Sunday accused chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of trying to distort facts by saying that a separate gurdwara body for Haryana would weaken the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
Reacting to Badal’s criticising him for backing the demand, Amarinder said it was not the Congress but the Sikhs of Haryana who wanted the right to manage own shrines as opposed to being remote controlled by people such as Badal.
The former CM said the Badal and his ilk had the same argument during the Punjabi Suba movement. “You wanted a separate state where Sikhs could have majority, which led to the creation of Haryana; and if the Sikhs there now want freedom to run own gurdwaras, what’s wrong in that?” he asked.
Amarinder clarified that Haryana was a separate state such as Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra, which had own gurdwara bodies. “Why deny Haryana the right because Badal won’t part with the resources its gurdwaras generate,” he said.
