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Sikh clergy to pronounce Sukhbir’s punishment today
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s political fate will depend on the outcome of this meeting as various Sikh segments have been pushing for his removal from the top post.
The Sikh clergy is all set to meet at the Akal Takht, located on the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, on Monday to pronounce the tankhah (religious punishment) for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal for “the mistakes committed by the party when it was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017”.
The SAD president’s political fate will depend on the outcome of this meeting as various Sikh segments have been pushing for his removal from the top post. Such a move could have widespread ramifications for the party which is already going through an existential crisis following a series of debacles in the assembly and parliamentary elections since 2017.
The meeting to pronounce the punishment for Sukhbir comes nearly three months after Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, declared him a tankhaiya (guilty of religious misconduct) on August 3. A fortnight later, on November 16, Sukhbir had resigned as the SAD president, but the party’s working committee had not accepted it and instead kept the decision pending.
During Monday’s meeting, Sikh leaders who served as ministers in the Akali government from 2007 to 2017, including those now in the rebel camp, will be appearing before the clergy alongside Sukhbir.
Dera chief’s case
Meanwhile, on Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh directions, former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, former Takht Damdama Sahib jathedar Giani Gurmukh Singh and former Takht Patna Sahib jathedar Giani Iqbal Singh have sent their clarifications over granting pardon to Sirsa dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the case of imitating Guru Gobind Singh. These ex-jathedars were part of the Sikh clergy that pardoned Ram Rahim in 2015, inviting a huge backlash. Besides, members of the then executive committee of the SGPC have also been summoned. The gurdwara body got advertisements worth ₹90 lakh published in the newspapers to justify the pardon.
