Talwandi may be SGPC chief
by PPS Gill
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 18 — The Shiromani Akali Dal Disciplinary Action Committee again met in Chandigarh today to give final touches to the show-cause notice to be served on the SGPC President, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, as decided upon at its meeting on Thursday.

The show-cause notice was signed by the Chairman, Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi.

Informed sources told TNS that the two-page show-cause notice contains the resolution adopted by the committee and mentions instances of what Mr Gurcharan Singh had said where and against whom. The notice seeks a reply within a fortnight.

The show-cause notice is to be delivered by the SAD Secretary, Mr Kirpal Singh Badungar, who is one of the Officers on Special Duty to the Chief Minister. The Akalis here are waiting the return of Mr Parkash Singh Badal to Chandigarh and know what had transpired between him and the Akal Takht Jathedar, Bhai Ranjit Singh, on whom he had called on at Amritsar on Wednesday.

What action is eventually taken against Mr Gurcharan Singh, who has stated he would reply to the show-cause notice as and when he received it, will depend on the SAD President, Mr Parkash Singh. While that may be so, highly placed sources in the SAD today told TNS that observing the laid-down procedures, the general house meeting of the SGPC is expected to be summoned around January 25, next by then stipulated three-month period required before the house can meet after its first sitting will also be completed. A proper 21-day notice calling the meeting will be served on all members.

The current thinking, it is learnt, is that Mr Gurcharan Singh should be removed from the presidentship of the SGPC. Who will step into his shoes? The name of Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi is being mentioned as the likely choice of the SAD president. Besides being the Chairman of the Disciplinary Action Committee he has the experience of having been President of the SAD. He is a member of the SGPC.

The general house has 185 members out of whom 170 are elected, while 15 are coopted; the five head priests are its members by virtue of their holding key positions. But they have no voting rights. The SAD is contacting all members individually and garnering support.

The Executive Committee of the SGPC, which has 15 members, stands split in the ratio of 10:5; the SAD having won over 10 while the remaining five are with Mr Gurcharan Singh. There have been "parallel" meetings of the two groups of members, one in Chandigarh and the other in Amritsar on December 16 last.

The political fog which has engulfed Punjab is getting dense with each passing day. Its opaqueness is further obscuring the path the new unfolding developments will eventually take in the near future.

Take for instance the manner in which Akal Takht Jathedar, Bhai Ranjit Singh, broke his "silence" to make an "appeal" to the feuding Presidents of the SAD and the SGPC, Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, to "cease-fire" at least till April 13, next. While the response of the SAD President is awaited, Mr Gurcharan Singh has reportedly said he would abide by the "appeal and observe "silence".

But in the present war of attrition even "silence" is fraught with mistrust. The silence" of the SGPC President, SAD sources said, was more pronounced. In fact even a simple "appeal", coming as it does from Akal Takht, is such which can neither be ignored nor defied. The acrimony between the two camps is now well established, both sides are keeping their fingers crossed and also keeping their cards close to their chest; there is no way that either side is going to undermine the other side's position, numerical strength notwithstanding.

But at the same time the "appeal is being interpreted as only a word of considered caution by the SAD in the larger interest of the Panth, since it is not a "hukamnama religious edict, which is issued by Akal Takht. Therefore, the religio-political affairs are literally in a fog at present.

What disciplinary action is eventually taken against Mr Gurcharan Singh his expulsion, suspension or cutting his wings as SGPC President is a topic of debate within the SAD as well as in Sikh circles. The developments are being dubbed as "unfortunate" and opinion on who is right or wrong is equally divided among the people and Panthic organisations.

Given the track-record of how the SAD, the SGPC, Akal Takht and other Panthic institutions act and react in a given situation on different occasions shows that the present situation is more vexed. With such a virulent attack on Mr Gurcharan Singh following his open suggestions on managing the organisational affairs of the SAD, and the way Mr Parkash Singh with his lay-back tactics has "won over" support of district presidents (including state unit Presidents), his ministerial colleagues, the SGPC Executive and now general house members leaves him virtually with no escape route but to stick to the stand he promised to his supporters.

If Mr Parkash Singh now wavers or dithers it will be at his own peril with a definite cascading effect on the administration. Those who have backed him did so on the condition that it will be a "final and decisive" battle between the two of them and not a half-way house. The SAD, at the same time, is aware of the striking power of the SGPC President, who has deftly used the Panthic institutions to his advantage in the past. But then past is different.

A school of thought is that if action was prolonged there is likely to be a wave of "public sympathy" in favour of Mr Gurcharan Singh. The SAD, apparently, is in a rush to clinch the issue and get down to recasting the Council of ministers, which had offered to submit resignations to enable the Chief Minister form a compact team to take on the weighty matters of the state, including a war against "corruption" within the government and the SAD.

Tohra to abide by Takht chief's advice
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Dec 18 — Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, SGPC president, has decided to keep mum on the present crisis within the SAD as advised by Akal Takht chief Bhai Ranjit Singh.

Bhai Ranjit Singh had appealed to the 'warring camps' to put off their tussle till April 13, 1999, so that the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth would be completed smoothly.

Despite repeated requests to comment on the show-cause notice served on him by the disciplinary action committee of the SAD, Mr Tohra today opted to keep silent in a lighter vein, he said the press would further "complicate" the issue. He was non-committal when asked if he would reply to the show-cause notice or not.

His loyalists, Mr Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Mr Harmel Singh Tohra (son-in-law of Mr Tohra), who had resigned from the Badal Ministry, also refused to comment. They said the Akal Takht was supreme for all Sikhs. Hence, they could not comment in violation of the appeal made by Bhai Ranjit Singh. They were here to attend the "shagun" ceremony of the son of Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta, a former minister and a Tohra loyalist.

Earlier, while addressing a gathering at the 'saghun', Mr Tohra alleged that some members of the SGPC and MLAs who had pledged to be baptised Sikhs before the distribution of the SAD tickets at the time of the elections had failed to keep their promise. Executive members of the Badal camp and other members of the SGPC were present when Mr Tohra criticised them indirectly.

Most of the supporters of Mr Tohra who had come here to attend the shagun ceremony were of the view that the Akal Takht should take the initiative to find a way out of the present impasse.

Col Jasmer Singh Bala, who was dismissed from the working committee of the SAD and its primary membership, talking to mediapersons, alleged that "absolute power being enjoyed by Mr Badal had damaged the very fabric of the SAD." He said Mr Tohra was the architect of SAD victory. The show-cause notice served on him was "unfortunate and spelled doom for the party." Mr Kartar Singh Takkar, former president of the Haryana SAD said the "Panth should come forward to resolve the matter between Mr Badal and Mr Tohra."

Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta, talking to the press, said the present crisis in the SAD would be resolved "very soon."

Sources close to Mr Tohra say he is likely to ask MLAs loyal to him to tender their resignation from the assembly.

CM has abandoned Panthic agenda: Rode

JALANDHAR, Dec 18 (UNI) — Akali Dal (Panthic) president Jasvir Singh Rode today took exception to the "political offensive" launched by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s camp against SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

Mr Rode said if Mr Badal felt "insecure" about Mr Tohra’s suggestion to step down from the office of party president in favour of his (Badal) loyalist, he (Badal) should have sought a clarification from the SGPC supremo instead of letting his followers launch a political offensive against him (Tohra).

In an interview here today, Mr Rode, a former Jathedar of Akal Takht, said he had expressed his anguish over the matter to the Chief Minister during a telephonic conversation on December 15 a day after five ministers loyal to Mr Tohra submitted their resignation to the Chief Minister.

Asked about Mr Badal’s response to his suggestions, Mr Rode said: "It was not positive".

Asked if he also took up the issue of strife in the mainstream Akali party with Mr Tohra, Mr Rode said he met Mr Tohra at Amritsar on December 16".  

The radical Akali leader, a relative of slain Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, said Mr Tohra had not committed a sin by articulating the sentiments of party workers.

Charging Mr Badal with having abandoned the "panthic agenda" Mr Rode asked as to why the Badal camp remained silent when a Jalandhar daily launched a tirade against the Akal Takht Jathedar.

He said instead of introspection over the party debacle in the Adampur assembly byelection, Mr Badal’s supporters had launched an offensive in an attempt to divert the attention of the people from the "weaknesses of the Akali government and the party". When Mr Tohra voiced the grievances of the party workers, "he (Tohra) was sought to be politically marginalised".

He warned that the political marginalisation of the SGPC supremo was neither in the interest of the Panth nor the party.  

Describing "Mr Tohra more Panthic than Mr Badal," the former Akal Takht Jathedar said Mr Tohra, had talked of the "Panthic agenda occasionally", whereas Mr Badal had "abandoned it altogether after alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party."

Mr Rode said "disaffection in the Sikh clergy" was also on account Mr Badal’s having "abandoned the Panthic agenda". He said not only Akal Takht Jathedar Ranjit Singh but "we also had voiced our differences on the issue of celebrations of the tercentenary in a memorandum sent to the Chief Minister".

Mr Rode said while the Punjab Government headed by Mr Badal was only trying to "beautify Anandpur Sahib," where the Khalsa was founded 300 years ago by the Tenth Guru, "the Akal Takht Jathedar and "we want that the tercentenary should be celebrated in a way that helps preserve and promote Sikh identity".

Mr Rode said if the Badal government continued to "betray" the Panthic agenda under the influence of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, he would be held responsible for "endangering Panthic identity"

"Our agenda and the agenda of the Akal Takht Jathedar is to save the Sikh identity, while Mr Badal is only preoccupied with beautifying Anandpur Sahib’’, he said.

Mr Rode said his party’s political affairs committee (PAC) at a meeting here today had adopted a resolution calling for an end to the "war of statements" between the Badal and Tohra camps, as this would "only help the Congress".