AMRITSAR: Several members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) from the Mejha belt and holding allegiance to the committee president, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, have criticized the president of the Akali Dal (Badal), Parkash Singh Badal, for challenging the authority of the Akal Takht and writing a letter against the Jathedar.
In a joint statement, here, last week the SGPC members alleged that Badal was acting at the behest of the Center to divide the Sikh community. They said they would take up Badal’s condemnation of the Sikh institutions and various allegations leveled by him as a challenge. Reacting to Badal’s call to the SGPC members to vote by their conscience in the ensuing elections of SGPC office-bearers, they quipped that they had given ample proof of their conscience after Operation Bluestar by voting the Akali candidate to victory in the election of SGPC president.
The signatories to the statement said they would once again give proof of their conscience in the coming elections by defeating the Dal (B) candidate, Prem Singh Lal pura, who they claimed, had colluded with the Congress to defeat the jewel of the Sikh community, Master Tara Singh. They wanted to know whether Badal could not find any suitable candidate from Punjab or rest of the country that he had to choose Lal pura.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 25, 1994
