New Delhi, November 14
Controllers of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) virtually split today in the wake of its president’s open support to the Congress blamed for the 1984 riots and Operation Blue Star. DSGMC president Prehlad Singh Chandok and its senior member Bhajan Singh Walia have announced that they will support the Congress, reversing a long-held Akali stand against the party.
Alarm bells rang among a powerful section of the committee, including its present general secretary Harbhajan Singh Matharoo, which distanced themselves from Mr Chandok and Mr Walia’s political position ahead of the Assembly elections.
The Congress today even named Mr Walia, who has resigned as the BJP’s Sikh cell president, as its candidate from the Shalimar Bagh constituency.
At a news conference, senior DSGMC member Manjit Singh and Mr Matharoo today opposed their president’s pro-Congress stance, indicating a split in the Sikh coalition running gurdwara affairs.
Barely little over a month ago, Mr Matharoo, a close lieutenant of sacked Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh, and Mr Chandok, a close associate of then President Giani Zail Singh, ended the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)’s virtual monopoly over Sikh affairs in Delhi with support of a rival Akali party headed by former DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna.
The fragile coalition opposed to Mr Badal has already suffered fissures with Mr Chandok and Mr Sarna showing up at a string of public functions attended by Delhi’s Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
— UNI
