Behind-the-scenes confabulations between the Congress party leadership and AAP party legislator Harvinder Singh Phoolka resulted in the Punjab Assembly discussing the future elections of the Sikh Assembly of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. WSN editor Jagmohan Singh questions the rationale of doing so and points out lacunae in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925, which are being consistently ignored by the Sikh leadership –traditional, Panthic and the youth.

Yesterday, when the Punjab Assembly passed a resolution authorising the Chief Minister of Punjab to pursue the case of delay in the SGPC elections with the Union government, certain facts were conveniently forgotten or ignored.  Neither did Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, nor did the dilly-dallying Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly Harvinder Singh Phoolka mention on the floor of the house as to why and how does the Union government delay elections to the SGPC general house, time and again. This is not happening for the first time.

Sikh organisations within Punjab and in the Diaspora have always been worried about the degradation in the leadership and management of the Sikh religio-political body –the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. As the body deals with millions of rupees garnered from obeisance money given by the devout across the many Gurdwaras it governs and funds from other sources –like rents, etc, the Sikh masses always believe, and rightly so, that these resources could be put to better use than to ‘upkeep’ and ‘maintain’ Gurdwaras alone.

The Sikh Sangat is apprehensive about the huge bureaucratic structure of the SGPC and it is people’s perception that it is largely corrupt and a massive administrative failure.

Whose game is the SGPC? Sikhs have to decide it themselves. The stakes are high. The understanding is minimal. The sharks are waiting to pounce on the Sikhs. Will the Sikhs always be sitting ducks?

As for the people’s views regarding its present leadership, the less said the better. The leadership comprises members of the Shiromani Akali Dal party and for all practical purposes; it is the party interest which is supreme. Since the last many decades this has been so and we have seen that the cause of the Sikhs and the interests of the Sikhs have been fully compromised on ordinary and important issues.

All of this has lead to various fringe groups and individuals to intervene from time to time and the intervention of Harvinder Singh Phoolka should be seen in this light only. Otherwise, the AAP party MLAs and leaders hardly has any sense of the Sikh issues relating to the SGPC and therefore not much was expected from them.

On the floor of the Punjab assembly, the members of the Shiromani Akali Dal have perfected the art of ‘walking out’ of the assembly rather than rebutting the fallacious arguments of the opposition on any issue.

If the term of the general house of the SGPC was over in 2016, how come the SGPC continued to function? Is the functioning illegal? Who allowed the SGPC to function as it is?  Shiromani Akali Dal at the state level? Bharatiya Janata Party at the union level? The Judiciary? The Ministry of Home Affairs? During this whole period, why was the Sikh leadership sleeping?

And significantly, is this happening for the first time? How many times has it happened in the past?

The Punjab Assembly resolution is conceived in sin. The intentions of Sardar Phoolka may be good and he had to ‘relinquish his resignation’, to raise ‘such an important issue’, but we need to know more. The relinquishment of his resignation was temporary or otherwise we do not know.

Why has Harvinder Singh Phoolka conceded the lead he has taken on the SGPC election issue to Capt. Amarinder Singh?

The Congress party and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has no love lost for the Sikhs and Sikh issues.  He has now been bestowed with the mantle to pursue the issue of SGPC elections with the centre. Under what law? Under what provisions? Why the Chief Minister of the state, who is the leader of a ‘secular’ party and whose party does not participate in SGPC elections at all?

Does the Chief Minister understand the nuances of the SGPC elections? Apart from shooting from the hip statements which can sound pleasing and secular, Capt Amarinder Singh is meddling in Sikh religious affairs. It is unfortunate that he has been given this opportunity by Harvinder Singh Phoolka whose prime intention is early elections to the SGPC.

The statement that has emanated from the Chief Minister’s Office says, “Hours after he was authorized by the State Assembly to take up with the Centre the issue of delay in SGPC elections, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said people had the right to early polls to the supreme body controlling the Gurdwaras.”

It further elaborates, “Talking informally with mediapersons outside the House, the Chief Minister termed the delay in the SGPC elections as wrong and unfair for the people of Punjab. It was the democratic right of every Punjabi to vote in SGPC elections which cannot be denied by Union Government, he earlier said in the House, while responding to the issue that was raised by AAP MLA HS Phoolka.”

“Since the Gurdwara Act was a national legislation, it was the bounden duty of the central government to hold timely elections to the SGPC, he said, seeking the permission of the Speaker, on behalf of his government, to adopt the resolution moved by the AAP MLA,” read the statement.

The lapse on the part of the Indian state to conduct the elections regularly constitutes indirect interference in the affairs of the Sikh people, particularly their religious affairs and for this an amendment to Section 51 of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925 should be done immediately.

Sikhs will do well to recall this. There is no provision for automatic elections to the general house of the SGPC after a lapse of five years. The union government, the state government and the leadership of the party which governs the SGPC have been colluding with each other to delay the elections in the last few decades. There are no provisions for regular enrolment of voters, verification of voters and preparation of voter lists. No provisions for by-elections.

A simple thing as appointment of the Chief Commissioner Gurdwara Elections, which should be a permanent post is neither mentioned in the Act nor has any of the political parties or leaders taken up with the government in a sincere and sustained manner.

The lapse on the part of the Indian state to conduct the elections regularly constitutes indirect interference in the affairs of the Sikh people, particularly their religious affairs and for this an amendment to Section 51 of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925 should be done immediately.

If these provisions are added through an amendment to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925, there would be no need for the “Chief Minister to take up the issue if elections to the SGPC with the Home Secretary of the government of India’.

Moreover it will not provide another opportunity for the Chief Minister and his CMO to add further fuel to the fire by issuing a statement which says that, “It was the democratic right of every Punjabi to vote in SGPC elections.” Since when was this right granted to every Punjabi? Sikhs and only Sikhs who fulfil the definition of a ‘Sikh’ can vote in the SGPC elections. Period.

The Sehajadhari Sikhs, about whom the Chief Minister had made the wrong noises in the past, without understanding the definition of the Sehajdhari Sikhs, also stand disenfranchised -fully and forever.

“The ‘people’ of Punjab want SGPC elections. Every Punjabi has the right to vote in the SGPC says Capt. Amarinder Singh? Is Captain Amarinder Singh running an RSS government with a Congress masthead?”

The scion of the Patiala royal household has lost it. After making unnecessary gaffes in an attempt to befuddle the Kartarpur corridor issue by saying that ‘even non-Sikhs’ should be allowed to visit Kartarpur Sahib and sometimes relating it to cross-border issues and now saying that ‘people of Punjab’ want SGPC elections and “every Punjabi has the right to vote’, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is running an RSS government with a Congress masthead.

Having taken up the matter with the Union Home Minister, why did Harvinder Singh Phoolka concede the leadership on this issue to the Punjab Chief Minister, whose Congress party is now boasting of participation in the SGPC elections?

Whose game is the SGPC? Sikhs have to decide it themselves. The stakes are high. The understanding is minimal. The sharks are waiting to pounce on the Sikhs. Will the Sikhs always be sitting ducks?