The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today supported the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s call for a Khalsa March to take place on October 7 from Takth Sri Keshgarh Sahib and Takth Sri Damdama Sahib to Sri Akal Takth Sahib while also urging the central government to file a review petition or enact new legislation to overturn the Supreme Court’s approval of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwar
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal presided over a meeting of the party’s legislators, former legislators, and constituency incharges during which this decision was made.
The Khalsa March, according to former minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema, is being held in retaliation for attempts to interfere in Sikh matters and to undermine the Shiromani Committee. The SAD has chosen to support the SGPC’s initiative to draw attention to the discrimination meted out to the community and ensure that it receives justice, he said.
The SAD leader said it was regrettable that the current Haryana and Punjab governments as well as the national government had supported the motion in court and referred to the 2014 Act, which was passed by the former Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress administration, as illegal and unconstitutional. This has damaged the Sikh community’s feelings, which are justified in believing that Sikhs have been subjected to discrimination thanks to the Haryana Committee’s approval by the supreme court. To prevent communal uproar, he suggested that the action be reversed.
Dr. Cheema added that the panel also took note of the central government’s excessive delay in responding to Sikh detainee Balwant Singh Rajoana’s mercy petition. According to him, the meeting demanded that Rajoana be released right away because the detainee had already served a life sentence and the central government had promised to commute Rajoana’s death sentence to life in prison on the occasion of Sri Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birthday.
