Jagtar Singh

  What is ‘Lifafa Culture’ in annual election of SGPC president?   Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Former president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the apex elected statutory body of the Sikhs in Punjab, Bibi Jagir Kaur, has been quoted today by The Times of India saying, “When election for the top post of the representative Sikh body is held, Sikhs usually say that the president comes out of ‘lifafa’. There is a common refrain among members that there is dire need to end this perception”. Later in the day while talking to the media in Amritsar, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal denied the existence of such ‘lifafa’ culture. The SGPC constituted under the Sikh Gurdwara Act manages notified historical Sikh gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana (Now separate body for Haryana has been set up), Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh and is elected by eligible Sikh voters in general election. The general house has a fix term but continues till the next election...

  Ironically, photos of both Sant Longowal and Jattana in same Golden Temple museum Ground Zero Jagtar Singh The Sikh religio-political domain at times throws up sharp contradictions. Here is the latest one. This paradox has come up with the installation of portrait of Babbar Khalsa activist Balwinder Singh Jattana in the Central Sikh Museum in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex at Amritsar. The contradiction is that the same very Central Sikh Museum exhibits also include the portrait of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. Jattana has joined the gallery of heroes whose pictures have been displayed in this museum for his action of stopping the construction of the Satluj Yamuna Link Canal, the channel that was designed to what is called Haryana’s share in Punjab river waters from the surplus Ravi and Beas rivers. It is pertinent to mention here that the Haryana area is the major region that is irrigated by the Bhakra Canal system that takes off from Nangal hydel dam i...

  Akali Dal gains little support in Panthic domain against Haryana Gurdwara panel Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   The struggle against the separate Haryana gurdwara panel launched by the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee seems to have failed to stir the Sikh religio-political domain unlike the earlier historic and glorious struggles, the last one being the Dharamyudh Morcha launched on August 4, 1982. This despite the fact that SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami dubbed the Supreme Court verdict validating the Haryana Gurdwara Management Act, 2014 as an attack on the Sikhs worse than even Operation Bluestar, the code-name for army attack on the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in June 1984.   The Supreme Court verdict did not have any shock effect so far as the common Sikhs are concerned, especially in Punjab as this was only the culmination of a long legal process and political discourse. There is a more important dimension to ...