Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh on Monday called the meeting of Sikh clergy on December 2 to pronounce the much-awaited tankhah (religious punishment) to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Sukhbir was declared tankhaiya (guilty of religious misconduct) by the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs on August 30 for the mistakes committed by the party and its government from 2007 to 2017 on complaint of the rebel Akali leaders.
Along with Sukhbir, Sikhs who served as ministers during the Akali government from 2007 to 2017, and members of the then core committee of the party have also been summoned on the day of the meeting.
As per a communiqué shared by the Takht secretariat, the meeting has been called to discuss the matter related to the Akali Dal and current Sikh issues. The meeting will start at 1 pm.
“Those summoned have been sent letters from the secretariat. The SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami along with all the secretaries of the SGPC have been asked to be present before Akal Takht on the occasion”, said the spokesperson of the Takht secretariat.
On November 16, Sukhbir tendered his resignation as the party president and stated in his latest letter to the jathedar that he wanted to appear before the Takht as a ‘humble Sikh’. However, his resignation was not accepted by the working committee of the party during its meeting on November 18 and the decision has been kept pending.
{{/usCountry}}On November 16, Sukhbir tendered his resignation as the party president and stated in his latest letter to the jathedar that he wanted to appear before the Takht as a ‘humble Sikh’. However, his resignation was not accepted by the working committee of the party during its meeting on November 18 and the decision has been kept pending.
{{/usCountry}}The SAD president and other party leaders of his camp had been making repeated appeals to Giani Raghbir Singh to give a decision on this matter at the earliest citing that it’s been more than two and half months since he (Sukhbir) was declared tankhaiya.
Being held tankhaiya, Sukhbir has not been able to participate in any public activities. Takht turned down SAD leaders’ plea for allowing him to lead the party campaign in recently held bypolls in four assembly segments in Punjab. Following this, the party decided not to contest bypolls in the absence of the president, though Balwinder Singh Bhundar was appointed as working president.
The mistakes cited by the rebel leaders include the revocation of the blasphemy case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for imitating Guru Gobind Singh in 2007; the failure to punish perpetrators of the Bargari sacrilege and police officials for the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing incidents; allowing the appointment of controversial IPS officer Sumedh Singh Saini as the Punjab DGP besides giving Farzana Alam, the wife of controversial police officer Izhar Alam, the party ticket in the 2012 assembly elections and appointing her chief parliamentary secretary; and lastly, failing to deliver justice to victims in fake encounter cases. The rebels blamed Sukhbir for these mistakes which were termed as ‘sins’ by the Sikh clergy while declaring him ‘tankhaiya’.
Any ‘political punishment’ to Sukhbir can have widespread ramifications for the party as it would mean his removal as party head as is being demanded by a section of the Sikh community. The party is already going through an existential crisis and has faced a series of debacles in the assembly and parliamentary elections since 2017.
Moreover, this time around the Sikh clergy seems to be in the mood to put an end to the episode of granting pardon to Sirsa-based dera’s controversial head Gurmeet Ram Rahim from Akal Takht on September 24, 2015.
It is alleged that the then-Sikh clergy took that decision under pressure from SAD’s honchos. The Sikh clergy and SAD faced unprecedented backlash over this move which was revoked later following the opposition.
The Takht has sought clarifications from former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, former Takht Damdama Sahib jathedar Giani Gurmukh Singh and former Takht Patna Sahib jathedar Giani Iqbal Singh who were part of the Sikh clergy which pardoned the dera head. Giani Gurmukh Singh is currently serving as head granthi of Akal Takht. After he alleged that Badals pressurized the Sikh clergy to grant the apology, he was removed from the post of Takht Damdama Sahib jathedar and transferred to a historic gurdwara in Haryana in 2018.
Besides, members of the then executive committee of the SGPC have also been summoned. The gurdwara body got ₹90 lakh advertisements published in newspapers to justify the pardon. Following the complaint of the rebel Akali leaders, the Takht had sought clarification from the gurdwara body, which had been submitted to the jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh.