Led by Sri Guru Singh Sabha President Jagjivan Singh, members of the Sangat of the Gurdwara Sahib Chitkora, Patna Saheb have petitioned Giani Raghbir Singh, Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib seeking disciplinary action against the Takht Committee as per Sikh tradition for their violation of Maryada in pushing out Sangat from Darbar Sahib during the visit of the Indian President Draupadi Murmu on 18 October 2023. WSN reports.

Ten days ago the President of India Draupadi Murmu visited Takht Patna Sahib. The Takht Patna Sahib Committee committed a great blunder in throwing out the Sangat inside the Darbar Sahib at the Takht under pressure from the administration, police, and protocol officers of the President of India. This was unprecedented. It has never happened anywhere in any Sikh Gurdwara. The Sikh Sangat in Patna has taken on the mantle to expose the Managing Committee of the Takht Patna Sahib, who upheld administrative protocol over Sikh Maryada.

The petition says that the Sangat is unhappy about the special treatment meted out to the President defeating the well-laid out and Panthic norms of behaviour in Sangat in Darbar Sahib, to make special arrangements, to swarm the Darbar Hall with security personnel, to make the Kirtani Jathas sing Kirtan without Sangat, to receive the President before she entered the sanctum sanctorum, has deeply disturbed the Sikh Sangat.

The Sikh Sangat in Patna is deeply upset by the turn of events which has placed the Sikhs of Patna in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. If any one is to be blamed it is the Takht Patna Committee, the police, the Patna administration, and the Protocol department of the President of India, who in their anxiety over security threw the Gurdwara Maryada to the winds.

Speaking to World Sikh News, Gurjeet Singh, who was one of the first Sikhs to raise his voice through social media about the incident said,”We have written to the Jathedar Akal Takht seeking stringent action against the Takht committee. This is intolerable.”

When asked by the response of the Sangat, he lamented, “We are doing our bit but the Sangat at large is unresponsive. We will still continue to raise our voice and will work hard to ensure that such nonsense is never repeated.”

Prominent amongst those who attended the meeting included Kanwaljit Singh, Ranjit Singh Chabbra, Kuljit Singh Bagga along with Gurjeet Singh and the Gurdwara president Jagjivan Singh.

Gurdwara President Jagjivan Singh told WSN, “We learn that the Akal Takht has already sent the Takht Patna Committee a show cause notice. This is not an issue which will die out so easily. Every office bearer, Sewadar, and others who harassed the Sangat are guilty and accountable. With the cooperation of the entire Sikh Sangat of Patna, we will take this to its logical conclusion.”

The letter written by the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Chitkora, Patna seeks action against Takht Patna Committee President Jagjot Singh Sohi, Senior Vice President Lakhwinder Singh, Junior Vice President Gurwinder Singh, General Secretary Indarjeet Singh and Secretary Harbans Singh. The letter says that these office bearers have hurt the sentiments of all Guru Nanak Naam Leva and that the Jathedar must take early cognizance of the matter and summon them to Akal Takht Sahib.

For now, the ball is in the court of the Jathedar Akal Takht, as earlier a group from the Sangat of Patna has already sought from Giani Raghbir Singh that the Takht Patna Committee and its Superintendent Daljit Singh must be awarded punishment for their misdeeds including delay in elections and corruptions in Gurdwara purchases.