SAD-BJP wants Pb govt to withdraw its affidavit supporting separate Sikh body for Haryana

A SAD-BJP delegation on Friday called on Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore urging him to ask the state government to withdraw its fresh affidavit from the apex court in which it has said it has no objection to Haryana having a separate gurdwara management body. A joint delegation of led by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and state's senior BJP leader Madan Mohan Mittal also demanded a high-level judicial inquiry "to expose the conspiracy of the state's Congress government to jeopardise the interest of the Sikh community and the apex body for the management of Sikh shrines (the SGPC)".

Talking to reporters later outside the Punjab Raj Bhawan, Badal accused the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government of "conspiring to weaken Sikh institutions including the SGPC by supporting the idea of a separate Gurdwara body for Haryana". He demanded immediate withdrawal of the additional affidavit filed by the state government in the apex court in this regard.

The SGPC manages Sikh shrines in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. In 2014, the Haryana Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was notified for managing Sikh shrines in the state, prompting the then SAD-BJP government to oppose the move in the Supreme Court.

The SAD said the affidavit was "legally and constitutionally weird" as it was directly opposite to the state government's earlier affidavit, which had opposed a separate religious body in Haryana. Badal told reporters that during the then B S Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana, an attempt was made to interfere in the Sikh affairs by proposing the idea of a separate Sikh body in the state.

Terming the Punjab state government's stance on the issue of a separate Gurdwara management body for Haryana as the "biggest betrayal" against the interest of Punjab and Sikh community, SAD president alleged that "Amarinder Singh government, by filing a fresh affidavit in the Supreme court, has changed Punjab's stance on this very sensitive issue at the behest of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi". PTI SUN RAX

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