Gurugram: The stage has been set for the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) to elect its first ever executive body, marking a historic milestone in the decades-long struggle for a separate gurdwara management committee independent of the Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
On Monday, a notification issued by Justice H.S. Bhalla, Commissioner of Gurdwara Elections, Haryana, formalised the co-option of the nine nominated members to the HSGMC. This comes a day after they were co-opted at a meeting at Panchkula’s PWD Rest House as mandated by the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Act, 2014.
The nine members represent diverse sections of the Sikh community. The new members are Balkar Singh and Sewa Singh (Scheduled Castes), Bhupinder Singh (Backward Classes), Simranjeet Kaur and Kartar Kaur (women’s quota), Gurmail Singh and Harinder Singh (registered Singh Sabha members), and Baljit Singh Daduwal and Dilbag Singh (general category).
The 40 elected members of the HSGMC, elected by eligible Sikh voters in January this year, nominated the additional nine. The 49-member committee is now poised to convene and elect the executive body.
These office-bearers of Haryana’s gurdwara management body, including the president, senior vice-president, vice-president, general secretary, and other office-bearers, will control assets worth crores, such as 2,500 acres of agricultural land, and educational institutions.
The elections for the 11-member executive committee will be held at 11 am, Tuesday, in Chandigarh, Prakash Singh Sahuwala, a leader of the Akal Panthak Morcha, a coalition of some of the 40 HSGMC members check, told ThePrint.
However, the process has not been without controversy. The Haryana Sikh Panthak Dal, affiliated with Punjab’s Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), as well as the Akal Panthak Morcha has opposed certain co-opted members, including Daduwal, a prominent Sikh preacher.
“The Sikh sangat [Sikh population] has already rejected Daduwal’s faction in the January polls [for the HSGMC]. His co-option undermines the democratic mandate,” said Sahuwala.
These developments are the culmination of a struggle that began in 2000, when veteran Sikh leader Didar Singh Nalvi proposed a separate gurdwara management body for Haryana.
At the time, Haryana’s 52 gurdwaras were managed by the SGPC, headquartered in Amritsar, which contributed nearly Rs 150 crore annually to the SGPC’s budget.
Sikh leaders in Haryana, including Nalvi and Jagdish Singh Jhinda, argued that a local body would better serve the state’s 25 lakh Sikh population, particularly the 18 lakh voters. The SGPC has been opposed to this, saying it would divide the Sikh community.
A fractured mandate and the co-option process
The first-ever HSGMC elections, held on 19 January this year, resulted in a fractured mandate, with no single group securing a clear majority. The elections saw 22 independent candidates, nine from Jagdish Singh Jhinda’s Panthak Dal (Jhinda), six from the SAD-affiliated Haryana Sikh Panthak Dal (HSPD), and three from Didar Singh Nalvi’s Sikh Samaj Sanstha emerge victorious across 40 wards.
The absence of a majority led to intense lobbying among factions, culminating in the formation of the Akal Panthak Morcha, a coalition of 18 Independents, one Sikh Samaj Sanstha member, and the external support of HSPD’s six members.
The movement for separate gurdwara management body for Haryana gained momentum in 2014 when the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government passed the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Act, establishing the HSGMC.
The SGPC, backed by the SAD, fiercely opposed the move, terming it a “conspiracy to divide Sikhs” and challenging the act’s constitutional validity in the Supreme Court.
The SGPC’s control over 48 of Haryana’s gurdwaras remained intact as the legal battle unfolded, with the HSGMC managing only four shrines under an ad hoc committee led by Baljit Singh Daduwal.
The turning point came on 20 September 2022 when the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 2014 Act and dismissed the SGPC’s petition.
The verdict affirmed Haryana’s right to manage its gurdwaras independently, paving the way for the HSGMC’s formation. However, the transition was far from smooth.
In December 2022, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government constituted a 38-member ad hoc committee to manage gurdwara affairs until elections could be held.
This committee, led by Mahant Karamjit Singh, faced allegations of mismanagement and infighting, with resignations of key office-bearers in September 2023 following a public spat at a gurdwara in Ambala.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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Haryana must ensure that Khalistani elements get absolutely no place in the new scheme of things. Anyone suspected of Khalistani sympathy must be shown the door.