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DSGMC chief Kalka breaks away from SAD; expelled
DSGMC president Harmeet Kalka on Wednesday announced to disassociate with SAD and form a separate party along with 31 elected members of the gurdwara management committee
DSGMC president Harmeet Kalka on Wednesday announced to disassociate with SAD and form a separate party along with 31 elected members of the gurudwara management committee following its drubbing in the Punjab elections, a move that led the party to expel him from its primary membership.
Kalka, who leads SAD’s members in the gurdwara body, announced to form a separate party with a panthic (religious) centric agenda. He said that the structure and name of the new party will be announced shortly. Reportedly, Kalka had registered a political party – Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi state).
“SAD’s panthic ideology and support base has eroded and no longer represents the Sikh masses. When we meet Sikhs in the national capital, they convey their displeasure with party’s top leadership, and want us to continue serving the gurdwara body separating ourselves from the SAD leadership,” said Kalka.
Reacting to the move, SAD announced to revoke Kalka’s primary membership of the party and appealed all its elected members in DSGMC to stay with the party of the panth.
Party’s senior vice president Prem Singh Chandumajra said that Kalka has backstabbed the party who was given him prominent positions.
“He (Kalka) has acted against the party’s interest at a time when party is passing through a rough patch and it is against the Sikhs’ ideology of miri-piri (power and spirituality) by saying that SAD was indulging in politics,” adds Chandumajra.
He also announced a seven-member ad-hoc committee to manage party affairs led by former DSGMC president Avtar Singh Hit, who currently heads the Patna Sahib Gurudwara board in Patna.
Kalka was made president of the party’s Delhi unit when Manjinder Singh Sirsa joined BJP in December last year. Later, Kalka took over the reins of DSGMC by bringing in a majority of 46 members in DSGMC, who are selected through an election. There are a total of 55 members, out of which five are co-opted and four are ex-officio members who do not have voting rights.
He said that Sirsa, as president of party’s Delhi unit, and he, as SAD general secretary, had singlehandedly won gurdwara polls last year but the leadership insisted them to join hands with the opponents, which they refused.
The control over the DSGMC is important because the committee has ten historic Gurdwaras, including Bangla Sahib and Sheesh Ganj Sahib, for management. Apart from this, it has 20 other gurdwaras under it in Delhi. It controls 12 schools, 12 colleges, one ITI, and hospitals. The control over DSGMC empowers the committee to control over 8 lakh Sikhs in New Delhi and a say in the government in the Centre.
SAD suffered a humiliating defeat in the state polls and could secure only three seats- one each in Majha, Malwa and Doaba belts of Punjab, sliding from 15 seats the party had won in 2017. Its voter turnout also suffered severely with party getting restricted to 18.5%, registering a downfall of 7% vote share.
