AKAL TAKHT TO SUMMON RANDHAWA
AMRITSAR : Acting on complaints of alleged distortion of gurbani against jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, will summon him to seek clarification.
Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh told HT, on Monday, that allegations against the minister were serious and he would be summoned around September 20.
“We will seek his clarification during the meeting of Panj Singh Sahiban (highest presidium of the Sikh clergymen led by the Akal Takht jathedar),” he added.
Randhawa had courted controversy last week, when he told a press conference that Giani Gurmukh Singh, the re-appointed Akal Takht head priest, should say, “Mai Papi, Badal tu Bakhshanhar” (I am sinner. Badal, you are the one who will pardon me for my sins).
Taking exception to this, a group of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members and office-bearers including executive member Bhagwant Singh Sialka, Rajinder Singh Mehta and media adviser to Bikram Singh Majithia, Sachand Singh had handed over a memorandum to the Akal Takht jathedar on Friday.
“Randhawa’s statement is distortion of a sentence of gurbani and thus he has hurt religious sentiments of the Sikhs,” they had claimed, seeking an apology to the Takht and strict action against him.
On Monday, a group of SAD leaders from Dera Baba Nanak segment, the home turf od Randhawa, led by Sukhwinder Singh Agwan, kin of Satwant Singh, one of the assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had also lodged a similar complaint. Dera Baba Nanak is the home turf of Randhawa.
SAD leaders have also alleged that Randhawa used prefix ‘Sahib’ with Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, while briefing the media.