Kurukshetra, August 3
Sikhs from Haryana and Punjab remained locked in a tense standoff over the control of Gurdwara Chathi Patshahi in Kurukshetra for the second successive day today.

A huge contingent of Haryana Police manned the barricaded periphery of the gurdwara to keep the two warring sides — one owing alliance to the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) and the other to the Akali Dal and Amritsar-based SGPC — from coming face to face.

The situation remained tense but under control amid appeals by HSGMC leaders to their supporters for calm. The Haryana leaders had served an ultimatum on the SGPC to vacate gurdwaras in the state last week, but the Amritsar-based body refused to do so.

Kurukshetra, August 3
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) has appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that Assembly elections are held in a peaceful and conducive atmosphere.

HSGMC chief Jagdish Singh Jhinda addresses supporters in Kurukshetra on Sunday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) were vitiating the atmosphere in the state and the ECI must issue directions to ensure peace before the elections, HSGMC secretary Joga Singh said.

At the same time, HSGMC vice-president Didar Singh Nalvi said: “There are byelections on two seats in Punjab and the HSGMC will launch a campaign against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal if he doesn’t refrain from interfering in the matter pertaining to the Sikhs in Haryana.”

He said, “Haryana Assembly elections are due anytime. But in present scenario, the elections are not possible.” He appealed to the state government to take steps so that a peaceful atmosphere could be maintained in the state which has taken a toll due the HSGMC row.

Nalvi said, “Letters have been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Haryana Governor to get time from them to put forth our views on the issue.”

HSGMC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda told his supporters that the Akali leaders had been creating law and order problem in the state. Many SAD leaders were visiting Haryana villages to protest against the HSGMC. “I appeal to the Haryana Government to put a ban on the entry of SAD leaders in the state,” he added.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the SAD, comprising of SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, SAD secretary general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra and secretary and spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, met Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki today and demanded immediate review of the Act passed by the Haryana Assembly against the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925.

The delegation told the Governor that by enacting the Act, the Haryana Assembly had engrossed upon the area of the SGPC, which has been declared an inter-state body as per the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966.

Citing an interim order of the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the SGPC on March 30, 2012, against the Sehajdhari Sikh Federation and others, the delegation said the SC had asked the executive committee of the SGPC to continue to function till further orders.

The delegation informed that the SC has passed an interim order in which it has directed that, “the executive committee under the chairmanship of Avtar Singh shall continue to function and discharge its duties in terms of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 until further order.”

In a statement, Cheema said the delegation also apprised the Governor about the conspiracies hatched by the illegally constituted committee and the Haryana Government to forcibly take control of the gurdwaras being governed by the SGPC.

In an emergency meeting in Kurukshetra, the HSGMC passed a resolution saying that every HSGMC member will bring 400 to 500 people at the ‘morcha’ venue on Monday. On Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh’s decision of calling both the parties to sort out the matter, Jhinda said: “I welcome his decision and we also want to resolve this matter peacefully.”