Mann a pretender: Makkar

Mann a pretender: Makkar
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 15
Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar today flayed SAD (A) president Simranjit Singh Mann as someone given to verbose claims.
Taking Mann to task, the SGPC chief said he would welcome it if Mann could produce the objectionable CD that he had claimed he would at a public meeting in Moga district a day earlier. It may be mentioned that Mann had threatened to produce CDs on eminent personalities involved in objectionable acts.
On the issue of CDs involving Daljeet Singh Bedi, the SGPC president said that initially, investigation by a five-member committee had found Bedi free of the charges levelled against him. “So, a clean chit was issued. But when another newspaper published his objectionable photographs, he was immediately dismissed.”
Refuting the allegation that the incident had tarnished the image of the SGPC, he said, “Whatever we could do, we have done.”
Avtar Singh was in the city on a personal visit to the residence of SGPC member Bibi Davinder Kaur.
Reviewing his performance during his fresh tenure as SGPC chief, he said, “We have passed a resolution that three kind of persons— rapists, thieves and drug addicts— will not be allowed into the SGPC on any condition. Acting according to the resolution, I have dismissed 60 people,” the SGPC chief said.
On the district administration’s denial of permission to Dera Sacha Sauda for holding a religious function at Salabatpura, he said, “The Dera chief should avoid such activities as the situation is not yet calm in the state.”
On the issue of SGPC, which is a religious body but is concerned with politics, Avtar Singh said, “Both should not be termed as separate. But the need of the hour is to ensure that politics does not take over religious matters. If both can be in harmony, then it can set an example.”
“Sikhs have always accepted that religion and politics go together. For the Sikhs, both are collective as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Committee were formed within a month’s gap in 1920,” he said.
When Avtar Singh was asked about the Khalsa Action Committee’s (KAC) charge that CM Parkash Singh Badal was not secular because of his involvement in SGPC affairs, he clarified, “The KAC and other such committees have nothing else to do but level allegations.”
Asked about his relationship with Paramjit Singh Sarna, chief, SAD (Delhi), he said, “Sarna tried to shield some criminal elements, so he has been facing the music.”
On the issue of dispute over Gurudwara Sangat Civil Station’s elected pannel, he said that if the matter comes before the SGPC, then approprate action would be taken.”