Chandigarh : A faction of Sikh leaders who want a separate and autonomous body other than the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to manage gurdwaras in Haryana Tuesday met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to discuss the issue.
"We met Hooda and reminded him about his promise of a separate SGPC for Haryana. He has assured us ... a separate body to administer gurdwaras in Haryana," Jagdish Singh Jhinda, president of an ad hoc committee of SGPC, told reporters here.
"Haryana's Sikh population had extended full support to the Congress. If they had announced the formation of SGPC before the elections, they might have won 70 seats here. They lost their seats due to internal conflicts and infighting," he added.
A few months back, Hooda had announced that a separate SGPC would be constituted -- provided there are no legal hitches -- on Haryana Day Nov 1, the day Haryana was carved out in 1966 out of Punjab.
"We are ready to do anything and to go up to any extent to have a separate SGPC. We can also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, seeking their intervention," said Jhinda.
On the victory of Akali Dal candidate Charanjeet Singh from Kalawali in Sirsa district, Jhinda said: "It is not the victory of the Akali Dal, the candidate won because of the support of INLD (Indian National Lok Dal)."
The Sikh faction took over Gurdwara Chhati Pathshai, controlled by the SGPC, in Kurukshetra town in Haryana, some 110 km from here. However, they left the shrine after a few hours.
"We took over the shrine without using force and as per the law. We remained there for nearly eight hours and left it on our own. In future also we can take over any gurdwara in Haryana any time," Jhinda said.
