Present Sikh leadership to blame for dera culture in Punjab, says Charanjit Singh Channi

Channi claimed that present Sikh organisations had miserably failed to practice the basic tenets of Sikhism including harmony, equality and brotherhood in the right earnest.

Launching an attack on the Sikh leadership that is in-charge of institutions like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Akal Takht, Punjab technical education minister Charanjeet Singh Channi claimed that they were to blame for proliferation of dera culture in the state.

On another query, the minister said that the state government had decided to set up a Research and Design (R&D) centre at Maharaja Ranjit Singh State Technical University, Bathinda, to restructure the syllabus of technical institutions as per industry requirement. (Pardeep Pandit/HT)

“Contemporary Sikh organisations that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has patronised, blatantly ignored the weaker and the underprivileged sections of society in the state. Due to this alienation, Sikhs gradually moved towards deras,” said Channi on the sidelines of a job fair that he launched.

Channi claimed that present Sikh organisations had miserably failed to practice the basic tenets of Sikhism including harmony, equality and brotherhood in the right earnest. “This fortified the position of deras in the state,” he claimed.

On another query, the minister said that the state government had decided to set up a Research and Design (R&D) centre at Maharaja Ranjit Singh State Technical University, Bathinda, to restructure the syllabus of technical institutions as per industry requirement.