FORMER SGPC PRESIDENT MAKKAR DEAD
CHANDIGARH: Former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar died in a private hospital in New Delhi on Friday after a brief illness. He was 78. Makkar, who started as a mohalla gurdwara head in Ludhiana, rose to become the president of SGPC, the apex gurdwara body, in 2005. Makkar, an Arora Sikh was handpicked by Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal to head the coveted gurdwara body. He remained as head of the SGPC for 11 years from 2005 to 2016 and also served as senior vice-president of SAD.
CHANDIGARH: Former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar died in a private hospital in New Delhi on Friday after a brief illness. He was 78.
Makkar, who started as a mohalla gurdwara head in Ludhiana, rose to become the president of SGPC in 2005.
Makkar, an Arora Sikh, was handpicked by Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal to head the coveted gurdwara body with the idea to woo non-Jat Sikhs at a time when the popularity of Paramjit Singh Sarna, a nonJat, was rising among the
Sikhs in the national capital as head of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. Makkar also served as senior vice-president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Makkar remained as head of the SGPC for 11 years from 2005 to 2016. In 2011, following a petition from sehajdhari Sikhs, the Supreme Court stayed the general house of the SGPC elected the same year and asked its executive body, headed by Makkar, to continue until the petition was decided.
He unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls in 2002 from Ludhiana-West.
Though Makkar lost the trust of SAD top brass after 2011, he continued as SGPC head due to the SC order.
The 2015 sacrilege incidents dented the image of SGPC and its office-bearers, including Makkar.
Makkar was in the thick of a controversy for his comments on the Akal Takht for issuing pardon to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a blasphemy case.
Makkar’s comments in 2017 that SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had informed him about the plans to pardon the dera head, but he (Makkar) advised him against it led to a flutter in the party.
Under his tenure, the SGPC celebrated 400 years of Akal Takht and 300 years of compilation of Guru Granth Sahib.
He courted controversy as a memorial dedicated to those killed in Operation Bluestar was built in the Golden Temple premises during his tenure and a portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwalae was installed in the Sikh museum.
Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir and other senior SAD leaders have condoled Makkar’s death.