BJP’s support to Akalis over new SGPC remains muted

CHANDIGARH: The BJP, it seems, is in a quandary over the issue of Haryana carving out a separate Sikh Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee ( SGPC) for managing Sikh shrines in the state.

Even as the party’s ally, Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has vowed to go to any extent to oppose the Haryana SGPC, BJP leaders in the state have mostly remained quiet. In Haryana, party legislators took up the issue in the state assembly, though only to opposing the manner in which the Congress government passed the Bill to create the Haryana SGPC.

When asked for their reaction, Haryana BJP leaders didn’t vehemently oppose the separate HSGPC, though they questioned the timing of the move that comes just ahead of the state going to polls.

“The Congress has a history of interfering in the religious issues of the Sikh and the timing of the decision again bares its intentions,” said BJP legislative leader Anil Vij. The findings of a committee that the Congress cited to create a separate SGPC were never shared with the opposition, he said.

The BJP had not supported the Bill in the House. "We rejected the Bill on technical grounds as it violated the basic decorum of democracy," Vij said, adding that it should have been allowed to be discussed in the assembly. The issue should have been first discussed between the sections in the Sikh community, he added. The central leadership of the BJP and the government have mostly remained silent on the matter, though the home secretary had written to the Haryana governor, asking him to withdraw the assent given to the Bill passed on July 11.

Among BJP’s allies, the Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) initially supported the creation of a separate SGPC, though it accused the Congress of playing vote bank politics over the matter. But it changed the stance after the home secretary wrote to the governor. “The decision should have been taken after taking the centre in confidence,” HJC leader Shivjeet said. The Indian National Lok Dal was probably the most vocal in supporting SAD. “It is a Congress ploy to divide Sikhs,” said INLD Haryana president Ashok Arora. He backed Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s view that the Gurdwara Act was a central law.