Manmohan cancels Amritsar visit

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has cancelled his visit to Amritsar. He was scheduled to arrive here on Saturday and pay obeisance at the Golden Temple on Sunday, besides attending a private function.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has cancelled his visit to Amritsar. He was scheduled to arrive here on Saturday and pay obeisance at the Golden Temple on Sunday, besides attending a private function.

Sources said he changed his plan so as to avoid a clash with the Panthic convention called by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday in the Golden Temple complex. The convention is aimed at mobilising support against the formation of a separate gurdwara body in Haryana.

The SAD has been claiming that then PM Manmohan Singh had stalled the formation of a gurdwara management committee in the neighbouring state.

Confirming the development, Amritsar police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said, “We have received a communication that the former PM will not be coming to the city. No reasons have been specified. However, his wife, Gursharan Kaur, will pay a visit.”

When contacted for comment, Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said, “Manmohan Singh has cancelled his visit to Darbar Sahib in view of the SAD convention. It is common knowledge that an attempt to form the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) was thwarted a few years ago due to Badal’s closeness to then PM.”

Kanwar Pal Singh claimed that during the meeting of the SAD core committee last week, Badal had said that had Manmohan Singh been at the helm of affairs now, the HSGMC would not have become a reality.