SGPC to elect office-bearers on Oct 28

Amid the turmoil in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which controls the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) due to its majority in its general house, gurdwara body chief Harjinder Singh Dhami has called the general house session in advance (October 28) for election of president, other office-bearers and 11-member executive committee.
Dhami said the session would start at 12 pm at Teja Singh Samundri Hall, the headquarters of the gurdwara body. Apart from president, senior vice president, junior vice president and general secretary will be elected either by secret ballot or unanimously.
Calling the session in advance is being attributed to the challenge from the rebel camp of the SAD that is expected to be bigger than previous years. Like previous years, the rebel camp is most likely to field its candidate against the party’s nominee for the top post. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who has been deciding about the office-bearers and executive committee members for years, was held tankhaiya (guilty of religious misconduct) for the “mistakes” committed by the party and its government from 2007 to 2017.
Usually, the session is conducted in the last week of November. It was never held so early in recent years.
It is being presumed in the Sikh segments that if Sikh clergy pronounces stringent punishment for Sukhbir, like debarring him from taking part in politics for some time, he will have to resign from the top post of the party and it would be difficult for him to hold grip on the SGPC members. People familiar with the development said the SAD wants the election session to be held before the pronouncement of the tankhah (religious punishment). Meeting of the Sikh clergy for the pronouncement of tankhah is yet to be held and it is expected that it will further be delayed.
Of the 191 members of the general house, 170 members are elected by Sikh voters in the general elections, 15 are co-opted, five are sitting (jathedars) heads of Sikh temporal seats and one is head granthi of Golden Temple. The jathedars and head granthis don’t have the right to vote.
The SGPC general elections have not been conducted for the last 13 years. Nearly 30 members have expired and two resigned.
No online sale of Gutka Sahib
The SGPC has decided to set up counters in the gurdwara, where the devotees can deposit offering for rumalas (sacred cloth for covering Guru Granth Sahib).
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, who chaired the meetings of dharam prachar committee and Sikh history research board and education committee, said the 400th birth centenary of Guru Gobind Singh’s mother Mata Gujar Kaur would be celebrated on November 22 at Gurdwara Gangsar Sahib Kartarpur in Jalandhar. The dharam prachar committee also passed a resolution to impose a complete ban on the online sale of Gutka Sahib (handy book of gurbani) and Pothis (gurbani scriptures) on e-commerce websites and apps.