Amritsar, October 4 – The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) carried out a large protest march from Darbar Sahib  (Golden Temple) to the office of Deputy Commissioner (DC), Amritsar, and submitted a memorandum to DC Harpreet Singh Sudan in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The SGPC memorandum demands cancellation of separate Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) Act and it was against the interference of anti-Sikh forces in Sikh affairs.

The protest march was led by SGPC President Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami, while a large number of office-bearers, members and employees of SGPC participated and expressed their Panthic (community’s) resentment. During the protest, all of the protestors wore black turbans and also held black flags and placards carrying slogans expressing Panthic resentment.

On reaching at Deputy Commissioner office, the protest march the SGPC President refused to hand over a memorandum letter to ADC, due to absence of DC and called for staging the demonstration until DC himself comes and accepts the document. After this, all members led by SGPC President Dhami sat in protest and started chanting Satnam Waheguru. This protest continued for about 2 hours, after which DC, Amritsar Harpreet Singh Sudan visited the spot himself and received the memorandum from SGPC President.

During the protest, SGPC President said in his address that there is huge resentment in the Sikh world due to recognition of separate Gurdwara Act, 2014 for Haryana state by the Supreme Court and this decision would break the SGPC, the representative body of Sikhs. He said the SGPC has been established after great struggle and sacrifices, while the governments and anti-Sikh forces are focused on breaking it. The Sikh Panth is consciously struggling against these conspiracies and will not allow division of SGPC at any cost, he said.

SGPC President said that anti-Sikh forces are always on the path of complicating the issues of Sikh Panth, and the governments are not playing a fair role to stop it. He said due to the injustices with Sikhs, we have been forced to protest repeatedly.

“If the governments do not consider the demands of Sikh body SGPC, then the struggle will be intensified in future”, said Dhami.

SGPC President said that under the Hindu Rashtra agenda of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), its head Mohan Bhagwat is calling every resident of India as Hindu, but the governments are silent on this. He said the governments should not be representative of any one ideology, but they should give importance to every community living in the country and especially the minorities.

He said that a biased attitude is being adopted in the issue of the HSGMC Act. He said as per the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, has become an inter-state body, so any amendment in it can only be made by the Central government with the recommendation of SGPC. But the rules are being deliberately violated to form a separate Haryana Gurdwara Management Committee.

He said that the Congress has been trying to weaken the Sikh power since beginning, but now BJP is also following the same path and doing conspiracies to suppress minority Sikhs and the Aam Aadmi Party is also working in the same manner.