Sidhu to Takht: Excommunicate Badals for shielding dera men
AMRITSAR : Punjab local bodies and tourism minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday urged the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of Sikhs, to excommunicate former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal for having alleged proximity with Dera Sacha Sauda and shielding its men in cases of sacrilege.
Sidhu, who was in Amritsar, went to hand over a four-page memorandum to Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh at the Takht secretariat seeking excommunication of the Badals. It was the jathedar’s assistant who received the letter on his behalf. Sidhu alleged that the father-son duo violated the Takht’s 2007 ‘hukamnama’ (religious edict) to boycott the dera for blasphemy after sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim had imitated 10th Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh.
Later, interacting with the media at his residence along with Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, Sidhu demanded that ‘Faqr-e-quam’ award conferred by Akal Takht on Badal senior should be taken back.
DO NOT TALK ABOUT PANTH: MAJITHIA
Reacting to Sidhu’s memorandum the Akal Takht seeking excommunication of the Badals, former Akali minister Bikram Singh Majithia on Friday said he has no right to talk about Panth or Sikh tenets as he himself does not follow any maryada.
“Be a Gursikh by removing ornaments and the colour on your beard before going to the Takht. You can only be heard when you start implementing the Sikh maryada in your life. You represent the party which accommodates the guilty of 1984 Sikh massacre,” the SAD leader added.
SAYS THE ‘FAQREQUAM’ AWARD CONFERRED ON FORMER CM SHOULD BE TAKEN BACK AS HE HAS DECEIVED THE SIKHS