LUDHIANA: The President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), Gurcharan Singh ‘Tohra, has taken a serious note of the statement by the Chief Minister, Beant Singh, disallowing jathas to go to Lahore to celebrate the birth anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Talking to media persons, Tohra said that Singh had falsely alleged that the Jathas met “terrorists” across the border, He said) that it was a political statement and the Chief Minister wanted to draw political mileage out of it as the Gidderabaha by-election was a few days away.
Reacting to the plan for a government Jatha, Mr. Tohra reminded Mr. Beant Singh that the late Prime Minister, Mrs; Indira Gandhi, had also sent a similar jatha led by Rachhpal Singh but she had to revise her decision the following year and had asked SGPC to send jathas.
He said that this statement shall prove counterproductive for the Congress as the Sikhs would not tolerate Government that denied them access to their religious places.
He reiterated his charge of misuse of Government machinery at Gidderbaha in favor of the ruling party nominee and alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan, always played in the hands of the Congress.
He said that the working committee of the SAD would be announced shortly after the Gidderbaha poll result was declared. However, he did not rule out a last minute cancellation of the poll.
The SGPC said that in case a ban was imposed on the SGPC send net has” to Pakistan by the Punjab Government, it would challenge it in the court. The SGPC Secretary, Manjit Singh Calcutta, said this was a right of the SGPC and that it would not allow it to be taken away.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 2, 1995
