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Punjab: Takht panel seeks clarity on membership drive from Bhundar
The next meeting has been fixed for February 11, in which, according to Gurpartap Singh Wadala, who is part of the Takht committee, Bhundar will be asked if the membership drive initiated by the party was as per last year’s edict of the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs.
The Akal Takht constituted seven-member committee led by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami, in its maiden meeting on Tuesday, invited Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar seeking clarity on month-long membership drive initiated by the party on January 20.
The next meeting has been fixed for February 11, in which, according to Gurpartap Singh Wadala, who is part of the Takht committee, Bhundar would be asked if the membership drive initiated by the party was as per last year’s edict of the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs.
“As per the opinion of the committee, the membership drive started by SAD is not as per Akal Takht’s directive. The committee do not want to enter into any confrontation and take a decision accordingly,” said Wadala. All members of the Takht-appointed committee attended the meeting held at Bahadurgarh near Patiala.
He said that based on Bhundar’s reply, the committee might decide to recall the membership drive and start it all over again.
Other than Wadala and Dhami, the other members of the committee are— SAD MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali, former SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar, Iqbal Singh Jhoondan, Santa Singh Umaidpur and Bibi Satwant Kaur.
On December 2, last year, the Akal Takht, while pronouncing tankah (religious punishment) on Sukhbir Singh Badal and other party leaders asking them to perform sewa for atonement of mistakes committed during ten years of SAD-BJP government (2007-17), had formed a seven-member committee to oversee the Akali Dal’s re-organisation and start a membership drive. It had also asked the party working committee to accept the resignation submitted by Sukhbir.
The SAD, however, was initially reluctant to have the membership drive supervised by the Takht committee, fearing that working under the direction of a panel constituted by a religious body might lead to the de-recognition of the party by the Election Commission of India under the provisions of the Representation of People Act.
The SAD constituted a 30-member panel, which included the members of the seven-member committee but excluded Wadala and Bibi Satwant Kaur.
Later, Wadala was included in the panel, while Satwant Kaur was still excluded, with the party adding that to become a member of the committee she should resign from the SGPC post. The party had later offered her to join the committee, leaving aside all considerations.
However, Wadala, Ayali and Umaidpur refused to accept their duties and said that it was a deviation from the Akal Takht decree pronounced on December 2.
But on January 31, the SAD working committee asked SGPC chief Dhami to supervise the party’s membership drive, which has been underway since January 20. The working committee had also asked Dhami to include new members in the committee in case he feels the need.
