As the gen­eral house of the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­uara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee -SGPC, meets to se­lect its forty-sec­ond Pres­i­dent, the ace thinker and ac­tivist urges for an ac­tion­able blue-print for Panth-ki-Jit and Sar­bat-da-bhala from the new pres­i­dent.

The Gen­eral House of Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­uara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee (SGPC) is meet­ing on 29 No­vem­ber 2017 to elect its next Pres­i­dent, Se­nior Vice Pres­i­dent, Ju­nior Vice Pres­i­dent, Gen­eral Sec­re­tary and 11 other ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers. 

Since 1966, the SAD con­trols the SGPC, not vice versa as was orig­i­nally founded in 1920.

The first five SGPC pres­i­dents were be­fore the en­act­ment of the Sikh Gur­d­wara Act, 1925, start­ing with Sun­der Singh Ma­jithia.  The longest reign was of Gur­cha­ran Singh Tohra for 27 years, 5 terms, 1973-2004; the longest con­sec­u­tive term was for 13 years.  The only fe­male pres­i­dent was Ja­gir Kaur for 2 non-con­sec­u­tive terms.

“The Sikhs have been suf­fer­ing from bad po­lit­i­cal ac­tion and reck­less in­ac­tion. Both mis­lead and dispirit us. Given the SG­PC’s past, that is likely a for­lorn hope, but I am more than will­ing and ea­ger to be sur­prised by the 42nd pres­i­dent.”

To-date, SGPC has had 41 pres­i­dents.  Its 42nd pres­i­dent will pre­side over its 2017 bud­get of Rs. 1,106 crores ($171 mil­lion USD).

SGPC Pres­i­dents af­ter 1966 were re­duced to merely SAD’s in­ter­nal pol­i­tics, per­sonal ag­gran­dize­ment, or In­dian state pol­i­tics.  Now, Akalis rarely talk about free­dom of any kind, and they are jailed for non-po­lit­i­cal crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.

For last two decades, al­most all SGPC mem­bers be­longs to one Akali fac­tion called SAD (Badal).  And it is no se­cret that SGPC pres­i­dent is hand-picked by the SAD pres­i­dent and the name is sent in an en­ve­lope to be “elected.”

Cur­rent pres­i­dent of SGPC Kir­pal Singh Badun­gar, who is likely to re­tain his post, has been play­ing the “Pan­thic” card re­cently.  He said SGPC op­poses Pan­jab Con­trol of Or­gan­ised Crime Act (PCOCA) by the Con­gress gov­ern­ment in the Pan­jab state be­cause such laws are al­ways used against mi­nori­ties.  He com­mented: “This law will cre­ate prob­lem for Sikhs, who are a mi­nor­ity. His­tory shows that such laws, in­clud­ing TADA, were mis­used against mi­nori­ties, es­pe­cially Sikhs …  The SGPC will write to the chief min­is­ter about it (PCOCA), will meet him, and if need be, will move the court to op­pose the law.”

SAD pres­i­dent Sukhbir Singh Badal has been hold­ing se­ries of meet­ings with SGPC mem­bers from Pan­jab, Chandi­garh and Hi­machal Pardesh, in­clud­ing one-on-one meet­ings on elec­tions and Pan­thic con­cerns.

“We have de­cided that this ‘Pan­thic Front’ will keep an eye on the SGPC af­fairs. It will play its role to im­prove the state of af­fairs when dig­nity and cred­i­bil­ity of the piv­otal Sikh in­sti­tu­tions has been se­ri­ously com­pro­mised for vested po­lit­i­cal in­ter­ests.”

In­cum­bent Kir­pal Singh Badun­gar, Av­tar Singh Makkar and Ja­gir Kaur, both for­mer pres­i­dents of SGPC, re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal leader Bal­bir Singh Ghu­nas, for­mer min­is­ter Tota Singh and for­mer MP Sewa Singh Sekhwan are con­sid­ered to be in the race for the top post. In­sid­ers claim SAD is in­ter­ested in some re­li­gious per­son­al­ity who could co­or­di­nate well with the Jathedars of Takhts.

The new Pan­thic Front led by for­mer Gen­eral Sec­re­tary of SGPC Sukhdev Singh Bhaur with 22 mem­bers of the cur­rent Gen­eral House who con­tested the SGPC polls as the SAD can­di­dates, but left SAD (Badal) are part of this front.  They will add to the ex­ist­ing slim anti-SAD (Badal) pres­ence who are ei­ther in­de­pen­dent or owe al­le­giance to other SAD fac­tions.  A day be­fore the elec­tion, SAD (Badal) pres­i­dent per­suaded 4 of 22 rene­gade mem­bers to join his dom­i­nant SAD fac­tion.

“We have de­cided that this ‘Pan­thic Front’ will keep an eye on the SGPC af­fairs. It will play its role to im­prove the state of af­fairs when dig­nity and cred­i­bil­ity of the piv­otal Sikh in­sti­tu­tions has been se­ri­ously com­pro­mised for vested po­lit­i­cal in­ter­ests … The front has been formed ac­cord­ing to the sen­ti­ments ex­pressed by dif­fer­ent Pan­thic or­ga­ni­za­tions and per­son­al­i­ties as the com­mu­nity is con­cerned about the in­sti­tu­tions of Akal Takht, other Takhts and the SGPC,” claimed Bhaur.

The Sikhs have been suf­fer­ing from bad po­lit­i­cal ac­tion and reck­less in­ac­tion.  Both mis­lead and dispirit us.  Given the SG­PC’s past, that is likely a for­lorn hope, but I am more than will­ing and ea­ger to be sur­prised by the 42nd pres­i­dent. 

I ask the 42nd Pres­i­dent thus:

Dear SGPC Pres­i­dent

Vahig­uru ji ka Khalsa, Vahig­uru ji ji fatih!

We rec­og­nize the le­gal and po­lit­i­cal ma­nip­u­la­tions are at work that limit your in­flu­ence.  But can you please do the fol­low­ing for as­sur­ing Panth-ki-Jit:  An ac­tion­able blue-print for every Sikh’s birthright to learn Gur­mat, the Gu­ru’s Way.  

Can you please do the fol­low­ing for the 7.6 bil­lion peo­ple for real Sar­bat-da-bhala: An ac­tion­able blue-print to make the Guru Granth Sahib’s mes­sage ac­ces­si­ble to global pop­u­la­tions.  Even your bosses should­n’t have any real is­sues with both asks.

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Thank you for your con­sid­er­a­tion from all of us tread­ing a path to be the Sikhs of the Guru.

Sa­tigur Rakha!