M A I N   N E W S

Badal meets Advani over Sehajdhari issue
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 13
The controversy over the granting of voting rights to Sehajdhari Sikhs took a new turn today when senior Akali leaders led by the Shiromani Akali Dal president and former Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, met the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, and urged the Centre to make suitable amendments in the SGPC Act, to debar Sehajdhari Sikhs from exercising their franchise in gurdwara poll.

The Sehajdhari Sikh constitutes sizable section of the community and their votes are crucial in the SGPC poll, which are to be held later this year.

The meeting was also attended by the Union Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, the Union Minister and SAD General Secretary, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, SGPC chief, Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti, and representatives from the Union Territory Administration.

Akali leaders told the Home Minister that the Sehajdhari Sikhs had not been given voting rights in Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971, and similar provisions should be extended to the SGPC Act.

The SGPC Act, however, grants them the right to exercise their franchise.

The former SGPC chief, Mr Gurcharn Singh Tohra, had raised the issue of debarring voting rights to the Sehajdhari Sikhs, which had evoked strong protest from cross sections of the community.

The SGPC Judicial Commission had recently ruled that the Sehajdhari Sikhs do have the right to vote in gurdwara poll. The elections to the SGPC are to be held later this year, which would be a crucial test for the supremacy of the Badal and Tohra factions in the state.

The leaders were in the Capital to finalise party strategy for the crucial Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee polls, which would be a crucial precursor to the SGPC poll, Mr Dhindsa said. Senior leaders from Punjab would campaign for the party in Delhi in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, India has lodged a strong protest with the USA for the dismissal of Mr Amrik Singh Rathour by the New York Police Department for allegedly refusing to remove turban and beard, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, said here today.

Talking to The Tribune, the Union Minister, Mr Dhindsa said he had taken up the matter with the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, and the External Affairs Ministry lodged India’s protest with the US Ambassador.

Mr Dhinsda said as a representative of the Sikh community, he would write a letter to the US Ambassador expressing how the feelings of the community had been hurt by the New York Police Department’s actions.

Mr Rathour has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the USA claiming that he had been sacked wrongfully.

“There are Sikh police officers serving in many countries all over the world, and yet here in New York City, the most wonderfully diverse city in the world, Sikhs are being denied their right to serve in the police force,” Mr Rathour had stated.

The Union Minister said the Sikh community had been deeply hurt by the discriminatory policy of the authorities, especially so by law enforcing agency.

Asked about the party’s rout in the panchayat elections, Mr Dhindsa alleged that “the elections were not free and fair. The electorate were threatened by the Congress by misusing the official machinery.”

“We have lodged a protest with the State Election Commission and we have demanded re-poll,” he said.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) has faced a rout in the poll for the third in the last six months starting with state assembly elections, civic polls and the Panchayat elections.