Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, April 26: Hailing the passage of the Sikh Gurudwaras (amendment) bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the AAP-Congress conspiracy to weaken the Sikh community over the Sehajdhari issue by opposing its passage had exposed their joint anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab stance.
Terming the passage of the amendment bill as a historical day in Sikh history, Mrs Badal said both Houses of Parliament had righted a wrong by passing this amendment and respected the sentiments of the Sikh community on this sensitive issue. Castigating the Congress and AAP for opposing this bill in the lower house through its MPs Choudhary Santokh Singh, Ravneet Singh Bittu and Bhagwant Singh Maan, she said the manner in which both parties had collaborated with each other to make a counter strategy against the SAD was reflective of the strategy adopted by them in Bihar.
She said the very fact that the AAP party had also decided to take an anti- Sikh stand and go against the sentiments of the Sikh community worldwide had exposed it completely. “Sikhs worldwide will be shocked to know that AAP has sided with the party which sent tanks into the Darbar Sahab and was responsible for the genocide of Sikhs in Delhi. Such behaviour is reprehensible from a party which professes to espouse Sikh causes. It is also a blot on AAP because now it has been proved that this party too like the Congress wants to interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikh community and weaken it for its own selfish political goals. Sikhs will never let this AAP- Congress conspiracy to infiltrate the management of gurdwaras with the support of outside elements succeed”, she added.
Mrs Badal said the passage of the amendment bill was a victory for the SAD and the Sikh community both of which were steadfast in their resolve not to allow outsiders to vote in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) elections under false pretences by taking the Sehajdhari route.
Profusely thanking the NDA government for passage of this amendment, the Union minister said in October, 2003 the then NDA government had amended the act denying ‘sehajdharis’ the right to vote in the SGPC elections but this decision was quashed during UPA regime meting out injustice to the Sikh community. “Finally justice has been done to the Sikh community and it has won its right to administer its own gurdwaras”, she added.
