Selective Amnesia

In Punjab’s quirky politics, anything is possible, including two elected houses in one assembly.
 
The influential Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the statutory body constituted to manage notified Sikh shrines, has gone into suspended animation. Reason: It has two elected houses.

It is quite a quagmire. The newly-elected assembly in the SGPC has been stayed and the previous house declared non-functional. Curiously, the cabinet representing the old house continues to discharge duties, including those under the jurisdiction of the General House.
 
The centre of the current impasse revolves around according to voting rights to Sehajdharis. By a loose definition, Sehajdharis are not Sikhs per se, but believers in the Sikh faith.

They were debarred from voting by a notification issued by the Union Home Ministry before the 2004 General Elections.
 
The decision, challenged by the Sehajdhari Sikh Federation, is now with the Supreme Court.
 
The Home Ministry’s notification was based on a SGPC resolution of March 30, 2002. After the unity between Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal and then Akali stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who had lorded over the SGPC for more than a quarter of a century, hurdles in the way of issuing the notification had been removed.
 
In the political brinkmanship leading up to the notification, a serious procedural lapse went unnoticed. It was an amendment that should have been adopted by the Parliament through an amendment motion, which could have been adopted later to supersede the notification.
 
Only the Parliament can legislate on statutory inter-state body issues. In this case, as per the Jawahar Lal Nehru-Master Singh pact, any amendment to the Sikh Gurdwara Act must be recommended by the SGPC General House with a two-thirds majority. The term of the General House was for five years but continues till the next general election.
 
However, this was never done. Sources say Badal was not in favour of this notification as it would have weakened the Akali Dal’s support base, a base normally reflected in Punjab Assembly election results.
 
Neither was it in Badal’s interest to press the then NDA government for amending the act; at the same time, apprehending threat from the Congress in the SGPC elections, he decided to provide his support to the issue.
 
“Badal feared that Congress would grab SGPC from the Akali Dal under the garb of Sehajdharis in the general election. He was instrumental in getting the notification issued but did not follow it up by getting an amendment moved. Tohra died within a few months of the notification. The old General House should have been allowed to continue as the new house had not been convened. That post has now been upgraded to Chief Secretary," says Tohra associate Manjit Singh Calcutta, who was secretary of the SGPC for a long period during the sensitive years.
 
The last election of the General House of the SGPC was held on September 18, 2011, after intense legal wrangling, which today continues to put question marks on the continued existence of the newly elected house.
 
The SGPC, set up under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, has an annual budget exceeding Rs 650 crores. All eligible Sikh men and women are qualified to vote provided they are listed as voters. Interestingly, in the SGPC, 30 seats were reserved for women at the time when the rest of the country was still debating women’s reservation.

The Act was passed by the Punjab Legislative Council, then based in Lahore, following the gurdwara liberation movement. Following the re-organisation of Punjab which led to the creation of Haryana, union territory Chandigarh and a part merged into Himachal Pradesh, the SGPC became an inter-state body.
 
Traditionally, it is the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner, a Sikh, who convenes the first meeting of the General House. The Akali Dal government changed this practice followed since 1947, by appointing a non-Sikh.
 
However, he was sent on leave and charge was given to a Sikh officer from a neighbouring district to convene the meeting, earlier held at the Town Hall but now moved to the Golden Temple.

According to Manjit Singh, there is no provision in the Act to appoint an administrator, as such a situation was never envisaged.

However, MLA and secretary Akali Dal, Daljeet Singh Cheema, a keen observer and participant, differs. "It is the Centre that has created this mess and the long-term impact of this anti-minority action would be negative for the country," he predicts direly.

He said both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Home Minister P Chidambaram were in the loop and the situation should have been clarified to the court or an amendment incorporated. "A procedural lapse has complicated the situation and this should have been rectified had the intention of the Congress leaders been positive”, he fumes.

But the damage has been done, its long term implications is a subject of discussion in the state. The fate of the new House hangs in balance. During the last elections, the court had held that the status of the new House would depend on the fate of the petition. The notification has been struck down by the court even as the rest of the judicial process juggles on.

The SGPC, apart from managing shrines, also looks after educational institutions including engineering and medical colleges and an university. It is virtually considered a parallel government in Punjab.

Meanwhile, the executive committee, assuming powers of the General House, has approved second part of the Rs 665.46 crore budget for the remaining fiscal. A sum of Rs 280.84 crore from the second instalment of Rs 443.6 crore has been allocated for the maintenance of gurdwaras, Rs 72.86 crore for educational institutions and Rs 28.66 crore for the propagation of Sikhism respectively.

For years, SGPC has dictated Sikh political discourse and its role has always been religio-political. It is for this reason that the outcome of the judicial process is being keenly awaited.

jagtar.singh@thesundayindian.com