Amarinder Singh accuses Prakash Singh Badal of using SGPC issue to mask problems at home

NEW DELHI: Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has accused the state’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of trying to mask their own problems with the opposition to Haryana creating a separate Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

It was Badal who had signed on an agreement that allows the creation of SGPCs not only in Haryana, but even in other states, the Congress leader said, even as SAD has stepped up protest against the Haryana government over legislation to create a state body to take over Sikh shrines in the state.

“Who is Prakash Singh Badal trying to fool? It is an undisputable historical fact that it was Badal who signed Punjab State Re-organisation Act of 1966 (of creating Punjab state and a separate Haryana state) which clearly provides for provisions for creation of SGPC in Haryana as and when that state (Haryana) desires so,” Singh said.

Consequent to that Act, Singh said, separate SGPCs had already been constituted in places like Bihar, Maharashtra and Delhi. SAD now wants to rake up a religious issue to divert public focus “from the dismal performance and corruption of the Akali-BJP regime” in Punjab, Singh said as he reiterated his support for party colleague and Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the issue.

The Hooda government’s decision to create the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is seen as a step aimed at ending the dominance of SAD in the Sikh religious affairs in other states through the SGPC dominated by it. Singh asked the BJP-led government at the Centre not to make any

“partisan intervention” on the issue in order to appease its ally in Punjab. He also questioned the Union home ministry’s letter urging the Haryana governor to withdraw his assent to the Bill passed by the assembly for the setting up of a state body. “The assembly election in Punjab is just one-and-half year away. The serial scams and all-round administrative failures of the SAD-BJP government have already turned people against them,” he said.

“The Badals are trying to whip up religious sentiments in their attempts to communalise politics, thinking that will help them divert the public attention from the sorry affairs of the state government.”