JALANDHAR: The Bahujan Samaj Party will field Dalit candidates for the forthcoming elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) under the banner of the Akali Dal (Panthic). Stating this at a press conference here last week, senior leader of the Akali Dal (Panthic) Jasbir Singh Rode said that an understanding to this effect had been reached between both the parties and in accordance with the SGPC guidelines, only Amritdhari Sikhs will be selected as candidates.
Hitting out at the SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Mr. Rode said that Mr. Tohra had no right to say that the BSP being a non-Sikh party could not contest SGPC elections. He further added that Tohra should not have said so because history is witness to the initiative of Dr. Ambedkar who had once marched to the Golden Temple with scores of Dalits wanting to make them Sikhs. He said that the Panthic Akali Dal hoped to achieve its aim of converting Dalits into Sikhs by initiating them into the Sikh religion in accordance with the rituals. The current affinity with the BSP was a step in this direction.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1996
