Captain Amarinder Singh,Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Amritsar MP, on Saturday cautioned the union home minister Rajnath Singh against being misled by Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy chief minister son Sukhbir Singh Badal on the issue of a separate gurdwara management committee for Haryana.
"It would be better if the government of India keeps off the matter", he warned in a statement here.
Referring to the reports that both the Badals had pleaded with the union home minister not to allow Haryana to set up a separate gurdwara committee to manage the Sikh shrines in that state, Capt Amarinder said, "This will not only amount to interfering into the constitutional and legislative right of the state but also ignoring and overlooking the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of lakhs of Sikhs living there".
The former chief minister reminded Rajnath Singh that separate gurdwara management committees are already functioning in Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra. "When these states can have their separate and independent gurdwara management committees, why deny a similar right to the Sikhs of Haryana?" he asked.
Questioning the Badals' claims that a separate body for Haryana will divide Sikhs, the senior Congress leader remarked, "An overwhelming majority of Sikhs there (in Haryana) wanted a separate independent body for managing the gurdwara affairs there. Even in Punjab most of the Sikhs and political organisations, except the Badals and the (Shiromani) Akali Dal, have already voiced their support for a separate Gurdwara Managing Committee for Haryana".
{{/usCountry}}Questioning the Badals' claims that a separate body for Haryana will divide Sikhs, the senior Congress leader remarked, "An overwhelming majority of Sikhs there (in Haryana) wanted a separate independent body for managing the gurdwara affairs there. Even in Punjab most of the Sikhs and political organisations, except the Badals and the (Shiromani) Akali Dal, have already voiced their support for a separate Gurdwara Managing Committee for Haryana".
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