Probe into Dera-SAD bond: Akal Takht to discuss report today

THE REPORT NAMES 40 LEADERS ACROSS POLITICAL PARTIES AS HAVING VIOLATED AN AKAL TAKHT EDICT THAT HAD CALLED FOR DERA BOYCOTT, SAY SOURCES

A month after a threemember Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) panel submitted its probe report on Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) taking support from Dera Sacha Sauda in the Punjab assembly elections, the Akal Takht will hold meeting on the issue on Tuesday.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh told HT. “The meeting will take place on Tuesday and will start at 11am.”

Sources said the report names 40 leaders across political parties as having violated a Akal Takht ‘Hukamnama’ of 2007 that had directed the ‘sangat’ to boycott the Sirsa-based Dera.

A major controversy had arisen, inviting widespread criticism, in the run-up to the Punjab assembly elections on February 4 after SAD candidates from various constituencies in Bathinda and Mansa districts attended a meeting organised by the dera’s religious wing at a banquet hall in Bathinda.

The party even went to announce that it will facilitate satsangs of the dera head in Punjab despite the fact that the Akal Takht had called upon Sikhs for his social boycott.

In his first reaction to this meeting of Dera and SAD leaders as well as other party leaders, the Jathedar had said, “The Akal Takht had directed ‘sangat’ to keep away from certain organisations (Dera Sirsa) and avoid any sort of ties. But certain people just to get help in votes established contact with such organisations.”

Jathedar had even said that the ‘hukamnama’ against Dera Sirsa in 2007 was very much intact and anyone violating it was a ‘doshi’ (guilty).