Pulling Out All Sops
- Ahead of assembly polls, Haryana CM Bhupinder singh Hooda has announced the setting up of a separate SGPC for Haryana on November 1
- The new body will control the 72 gurudwaras in the state which are now under the SGPC of Punjab
- The Akali Dal opposes it strongly
- Sikh leaders allege the SGPC (Punjab) was financially exploiting the gurudwaras in Haryana while doing little for the community
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To gain control over Sikh gurudwaras and similar institutions is a desire Congress CMs of both Punjab and Haryana have rarely been able to resist. The advantages being purely political, such moves have always generated opposition and accusations of undue interference in Sikh religious affairs. So when Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced that the state’s 15 lakh Sikhs will, on November 1, Haryana Day, get their own Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to manage the 72-odd gurudwaras and Sikh institutions in the state, a political ruckus erupted in both states.
Hooda’s announcement came just a few days before the cabinet recommended dissolution of the state assembly and is clearly aimed at the Sikh voter in the run-up to the polls likely to be held in October. A separate SGPC was Hooda’s promise to the Sikhs in the 2005 manifesto. He kept it alive for five years by appointing a committee headed by a Sikh minister to study the demand. Some months ago, it recommended in favour of a separate SGPC. Even now, his assurance of a separate SGPC for Haryana comes with the caveat that it will happen “provided there is no legal hitch”. The hitch, though, is not so much legal as political, because the ruling Akali Dal in Punjab which controls the Amritsar-based SGPC managing all Sikh shrines in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal is warning of dire consequences if this happens.
The Akali Dal, which derives sustenance from its dominance over Sikh religious affairs in the region, is unlikely to give up a significant chunk of its influence in Haryana without a fight. Its MPs have already raised the issue in Parliament and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal has also met the PM and urged him to call off Hooda’s “ill-advised move”. A resolution passed by the SGPC general house on August 14 has also blamed the Congress for dividing the Sikhs.
All these years, Sikh leaders of Haryana have cried hoarse over the “exploitation at the hands of the Punjabi-dominated SGPC” and intensified their struggle since 2000 when they formed an ad-hoc Sikh panel of Haryana. Says Jagdish Singh Jhinda, the president of the ad-hoc SGPC, “Just as the Akalis in Punjab have always exploited Haryana Sikhs for political ends, Hooda’s action so far also smacks of political opportunism. We’re disappointed that he hasn’t implemented his promise and left it for after the polls.” Jhinda and Didar Singh Nalvi, another Sikh leader, accuse the Akali Dal of dipping into the SGPC’s considerable revenues for political activities and say they have always used Haryana’s gurudwaras as income-earners but never used this money to better the Haryana Sikhs’ lot.
Soon after Hooda’s announcement, the SGPC leadership swung into action. It invited Haryana’s Sikh leaders for talks to consider giving them some independence in running their gurudwaras. But the initiative fell through when Jhinda and Nalvi realised that the SGPC was not interested in granting them genuine autonomy. The Haryana leaders also want their representation in the SGPC general house to be in proportion to the state’s Sikh population. If Hooda doesn’t implement his promise before the polls, he risks alienating the Sikh voters who have a presence in 20 constituencies; their leaders are already talking of betrayal. Fulfilling his promise, though, is the bigger political minefield.
