DHALIAN (LUDHIANA): The controversial annual election of the president of the apex Sikh religious body, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee would be held on November 25, five days before the term 0 the present executive ends.
‘The SGPC president, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, disclosed this while taking to media persons. He said he had called a meeting of the general house of the committee at Teja Singh Samundri Hall in Amritsar for the purpose.
‘Though contesting the election for the 20th time, Tohra is leaving nothing to chance this time, particularly in view of the announcement of the Shiromani Akal Dal (Badal) to enter the arena. Tohra recently met a number of SGPC members in Ludhiana district to win their support and will be touring Bathinda district this week, Tohra went to the extent of declaring that he shall never become SGPG chief for the rest of his life if Badal got the clean chit from the Akal Takht.
The former chief minister, Surjit Singh Bamala, remarked that Badal was not sincere. Badal was playing the government’s game to destroy the Akalis and the SGPC by keeping them fragmented and indulging in mudslinging against each other. Jagdev Singh Talwandi flayed Badal for joining with anti-Sikh forces like the Bharatiya Janata Party to gain popularity outside the state but asserted that the Sikhs would never forgive him.
Badal has intensified his party’s campaign for the forthcoming 2lections to the president and other Office bearers of the SGPC. Addressing a gathering of party activists and SGP member at the Langar building inside the Golden Temple complex. He launched a frontal attack on Tohra alleging that under his leadership the prestigious organization had become a hotbed of corruption. Claiming that the SGPC funds were being misused for vested personal and political interests, he said that this blatant corruption would no longer be allowed to continue.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 18, 1994
