The committee constituted by Akal Takht on December 2 to oversee the membership drive for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will begin its work from Amritsar on Tuesday after performing ardaas on the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs.
Akali chief Gurpartap Singh Wadala (HT File)
“We will sit outside the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) and ask people to become members of the party,” stated Gurpartap Singh Wadala, a member of the seven-member committee constituted by the Takht.
Two members of the committee, together with SGPC president and former SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar, have since resigned from the committee, and now, 5 members, together with Wadala, Manpreet Singh Ayali, Iqbal Singh Jhoondan, Santa Singh Umaidpur and Bibi Satwant Kaur will begin the membership drive.
Many SAD leaders have raised objections, with get together vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema questioning the locus standi and asking for which get together the five-member committee is making members.
“The membership form they have printed mentions Akali Dal, a name which doesn’t exist,” stated Cheema, including that SAD provided the committee to take membership types from them and make members the authorized approach.
“Where would they deposit the funds collected at the time of making members? To my knowledge, they do not have any bank account opened as the party title they have mentioned has not been registered with the Election Commission of India,” he stated.
Countering Cheema, Wadala stated that the membership drive is being began within the true spirit of the December 2 edict. “Unnecessary contradictions are being raised by SAD. The Akal Takht, in its edict, has also said that in case of no support from SAD, the committee can start the drive on its own,” Wadala added.
In the meantime, SAD has prolonged the final date for the membership drive to March 25 after a overview by the parliamentary board and the observers. Cheema stated after the method of constructing members is over, the district unit presidents can be elected, adopted by the election of the president and different officebearers.
SAD has been reluctant to simply accept the Takht edict concerning the membership drive supervised by the seven-member committee, with the get together claiming that taking instructions from a non secular physique may result in disqualification and resumption of the get together image.
Bhundar requires unity
SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar gave a name for unity and invited all estranged leaders into the get together fold, referring to a message from Akal Takht jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj.
Chairing a gathering of the get together’s parliamentary board right here at get together headquarters, Bhundar requested the five-member committee to obey the Akal Takht directive, attempt for unity within the panth and be a part of SAD’s membership drive.
SAD to attend all-party meet at Chennai
Bhundar knowledgeable that the get together would attend an all-party assembly convened by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on March 22 to debate the delimitation train. “We feel this exercise will create an imbalance in the country. The exercise is also against the concept of federalism with some states like Uttar Pradesh likely to witness an increase of Lok Sabha seats to 150 while there would be a marginal increase in seats of states like Punjab and Haryana”.
He additionally disclosed that the Akali delegation would additionally give its inputs on the brand new schooling coverage which might adversely have an effect on regional languages.