Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal said here today that no interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs will be tolerate and Khalsa Panth will give a befitting reply to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s brazen attempts to usurp control of sacred Sikh institutions through the back door.
” He is walking the path of several anti-Sikh tyrants and their stooges in the past who tried to brow beat the Khalsa Panth and its sacred religious institutions. Clearly, he has had no time from his leisure and pleasure style in life to learn or draw the right lessons from Sikh history” said the Akali Chief. Mr Badal also dared Bhagwant Mann to try and meddle in the religious affairs of the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians or any other faith.
In a statement here this afternoon, Mr Badal said, “Having failed to brow beat the Khalsa Panth on the issue of telecast of Gurbani, Bhagwant Mann is now resorting to cheap tricks and conspiracies to disrupt the smooth seva being performed by the SGPC and its sevadars and empoyees for over a century now.
He has lowered the dignity of his office so pathetically that he is now stooping even to incite and sponsor employees of the most sacred Sikh Gurdham , Sach Khand Sri Harmandar Sahib, and going out of his way to register a union which he has himself sponsored by misleading a fragment of the employees of the SGPC. This is just a continuation of the old polices of divide and rule against the Sikhs quom.”
Mr Badal said that this govt sponsored union “ is Bhagwant Mann’s latest and desperate act of shameless interference in the affairs of a religion of which he does not observe even the basic norms. He is not even a practicing Sikh. Shockingly, he feels the least shame and reluctance in ridiculing even the sacred symbols (kakaars) including beard bequeathed to the Sikh quom by Dasmesh Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji. He feels no shame in desecrating our religious places and practices by forcibly going drunk in the presence of Shri Gur Granth Sahib ” said Mr Badal.
The SAD Chief further said that since becoming the CM, Bhagwant Mann has remained obsessed with interfering in Sikh religious affairs and trying to weaken the established Sikh traditions and institutions. “ He or the Punjab government have no locus standi in recommending amendments to the Anand Marriage Act and yet he tried to hurriedly to poke his nose into it in a failed bid to tweak it at the bidding of his non-Sikh and anti-Sikh bosses in Delhi. These amendments can be made only on the recommendations of the elected religious representatives”.
The Akali president further said that the Sikh quom accepts the challenge thrown at it by Kejrwal and Bhagwant Mann. “ We will hit back with full might of the quom against this onslaught on our religion. SAD as the representative of the religious sentiments of the Khalsa Panth will launch statewide protests on Monday and burn CM’s effigies at district headquarters to highlight and oppose his and his government’s “illegitimate meddling in the religious affairs of the Khalsa Panth”.
Mr Badal also announced that a delegation of the party will call on the Punjab Governor on Saturday to will also take up the issue with him to urge him to stop the CM from “pursuing this disastrous course of confrontation with the Khalsa Panth and put and end to persistent meddling in Sikh religious affairs.”