The first meet­ing of the newly-elected 46 mem­bers of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee for co-op­tion will be held on 9 Sep­tem­ber 2021, presided over by the Di­rec­tor of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions. The list of Pres­i­dents of Singh Sab­has reg­is­tered with the DGE is also on­line. A no­ti­fi­ca­tion with the sched­ule of co-op­tion of the 2 mem­bers who would rep­re­sent the Sikh Com­mu­nity of Delhi has been is­sued. WSN Delhi Desk’s Gurmeet Singh re­ports.

The Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions has fixed 9 Sep­tem­ber as the date for co-op­tion as per the pro­vi­sions of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Act. As per the no­ti­fi­ca­tion is­sued on 31 Au­gust 2021, the last date for fil­ing nom­i­na­tions is 4 Sep­tem­ber 2021 with scrutiny on 6 Sep­tem­ber and with­drawal of nom­i­nees on 8 No­vem­ber.

On 9 Sep­tem­ber 2021 the co-op­tion of the new mem­bers. 9 mem­bers, which in­cludes 4 head priests of the four Takhts, namely Akal Takht Sahib, Patna Sahib, Hazur Sahib and Kesh­garh Sahib, 1 nom­i­nee of SGPC, 2 mem­bers from the Sikh com­mu­nity and 2 mem­bers from the list of pres­i­dents of the 273 reg­is­tered Singh Sab­has of Delhi. The se­lec­tion of the 2 mem­bers from the Sikh com­mu­nity will be through a se­cret bal­lot. Every elected mem­ber out of the 46 shall have only one vote. In the cur­rent sce­nario, there is likely to be one from the win­ning side and one from the com­bined op­po­si­tion. 

Once the co-op­tion is com­plete the mem­bers take the oath of of­fice at a sub­se­quent date and then the for­ma­tion of the eighth gen­eral house of the DS­GMC will be of­fi­cially  com­pleted.  

Though be­lat­edly, the DGE -Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions, has pub­lished the list of Pres­i­dents of the 273 Gur­d­wara Singh Sab­has, reg­is­tered with the DGE, on its web­site. Two mem­bers out of these will be cho­sen by draw­ing lots and will be co-opted. What is sig­nif­i­cant is that the di­rec­torate’s list is not up to date and there is a mis­match as per the cur­rent pres­i­dents who are in of­fice. A case in point is that of the Pres­i­dent of Gur­d­wara Sahib in Moti Na­gar, New Delhi, where the name of the Pres­i­dent, who was of­fi­ci­at­ing 6 years ago has been men­tioned. 

Ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion gath­ered by WSN, the par­tic­i­pat­ing groups do not show much in­ter­est, ex­cept only if the num­bers are at stake and this re­sults in lax­ity.

Con­sci­en­tious Sikhs, so­cial me­dia ac­tivists and Gur­d­wara lead­ers should show rigout and go in for scrutiny of names on a war foot­ing.  The list of Pres­i­dents of reg­is­tered Gur­d­wara Singh Sab­has is avail­able on­line on the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions web­site. 

The  DGE has given only two days for fil­ing ob­jec­tions. The list of Pres­i­dents has been up­loaded on­line but there is no com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the DGE to the Gur­d­wara Pres­i­dents in this re­gard.  Form C III avail­able on­line on the DGE web­site should be filed for ob­ject­ing a name up to 1500 hrs on 2 Sep­tem­ber 2021. 

With the Badal Dal team win­ning 27 seats and the com­bined op­po­si­tion num­bers be­ing 19, the pos­si­bil­ity of turn­coats on ei­ther side, the re­sults of co-op­tion can eas­ily twist the bal­ance be­fore the con­sti­tu­tion of the new house.