‘Clergy ’s edict being defied‘: Wadala calls on Takht jathedar

SAD announced the membership drive during its January 10 working committee meeting during which the party also accepted Sukhbir Singh Badal’s resignation as party chief

AMRITSAR Convener of now dissolved Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar Gurpartap Singh Wadala met Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh as the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) kickstarted its membership drive on Monday. The meeting lasted nearly 1.5 hours. SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami was also given same time by jathedar and was present at the meeting.

Gurpartap Singh Wadala (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

After the meeting, Wadala alleged that SAD had defied the Sikh clergy’s December 2 decree, which mandated that the party’s re-organisation should be supervised by the seven-member panel constituted by the Akal Takht.

“A few days’ back jathedar has sent a message to the SAD leadership asking it to postpone the membership drive keeping in view of the December 2 decree, yet, the party has initiated the drive. They have defied the edict of the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs which sends a wrong message to world that community members have defied the decree,” Wadala alleged.

Wadala further claimed that during the meeting jathedar called up SAD acting president Balwinder Singh Bhundar to ensure implementation of the edict. “Bhundar saab gave him his word that he would try to ensure implementation of the decree in totality, failing which he would resign from the top post,” Wadala further claimed.

SAD announced the membership drive during its January 10 working committee meeting during which the party also accepted Sukhbir Singh Badal’s resignation as party chief. While the SAD working committee panel retained five members, former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Kirpal Singh Badungar, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, SAD legislative party leader Manpreet Singh Ayali, Santa Singh Umaidpur and Iqbal Singh Jhundan, from the Takht-constituted committee, it left out the remaining two, Gurpartap Singh Wadala and Bibi Satwant Kaur.

Ayali, Umaidpur and Jhudan have already expressed their dissent over SAD’s move while asking for a complete implementation of the Takht’s decree.

Dhami, who is a member of Takht-constituted panel as well as the committee formed by the SAD to oversee the membership drive has maintained silence over the entire row.

Wadala claimed that the SGPC president also wants the Takht decree to be implemented in totality.

“We requested Singh Sahiban (jathedar) to issue strict directions to the Akali Dal leadership to comply with the December 2 decree. The SGPC chief also said that he would take up the issue with the party acting president during a meeting of SGPC members called by SAD on Jan 22 at Chandigarh,” Wadala added.