Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest Sikh seat, negates Akali Dal’s line by extending support to Kashmir struggle

Chandigarh: Only two dignitaries from India were invited by Pakistan to speak at the inauguration of the historic corridor at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur Sahib. They were Imran Khan’s cricketer friend Navjot Singh Sidhu who was the hero at the celebrations and Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh who was by and large ignored. However, he was the person whose words were heavy with political content.

Giani Harpreet Singh, who heads the highest Sikh seat for prayer and politics, rejected the political line of Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Kashmir. Not only that, he traced the theological similarities between Sikhism and Islam.

Giani Harpreet Singh, a postgraduate in religious studies from Punjabi University, Patiala, is pursuing doctoral degree at the same university. Jathedar of Takht Sri Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo, he was given additional charge of the Akal Takht following the ignominious exit of Giani Gurbachan Singh who symbolised total degeneration of this highest Sikh institution to the lowest depth.

Sukhbir Singh Badal in the Lok Sabha had extended total support to the revocation of Article 370 that accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The second part of the Narendra Modi government decision was to downgrade the state to two union territories.

It may be mentioned that the Akali Dal had contested the 1967 Assembly election on the issue of special status to Punjab on the pattern of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370. Autonomy has been the demand of the oldest regional party since then. In case of Jammu and Kashmir, even its status as state is now part of history.

The party that would be a century old next year was created at Akal Takht on December 14, 1920 by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee set up on November 15 earlier. This body got statutory status in 1925 with the enactment of Sikh Gurdwara Act. It is for this reason that the stand taken by Akal Takht Jathedar is important in the context of Sikh religio-political discourse.

Giani Harpreet Singh, from the land of Kartarpur Sahib, extended total support to the Kashmiris quoting history. His logic was that the Sikhs had always fought against repression. The Sikhs supported Kashmiri Pandits during the rule of Aurangzeb who were being persecuted and pressured to convert to Islam.

Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Sikh Master, sacrificed his life while defending the human rights of Kashmiri Pandits. He was martyred in Delhi along with his associates.

He said now the Sikhs supported the Kashmiri Muslims who were facing repression. For him, the two situations were similar.

Despite the ratification by Sukhbir of revocation of Article 370, a major section of the Sikhs both in India and abroad had come out in support of Kashmiris.

The Akal Takht Jathedar has thus rejected the political line adopted by Sukhbir Singh Badal on Kashmir.

It may be recalled that he had recently demanded a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.

The Akali Dal is the alliance partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party of which the RSS is the mother organisation.

The other part of his speech was equally similar at the ideological level. He traced theological similarities between Sikhism and Islam as both the religions are monotheistic believing in one God as against Hindu religion that has multiplicity of gods and deities. Both Sikhism and Islam are against idol worship.

Would he be elevated in the present post after confronting Sukhbir Singh Badal?

But then his crucial intervention in the Sikh religio-political discourse is now part of history and that too when the these high priests are perceived to be the people towing the line of political leaders who control the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.