AMRITSAR: Claiming to have observed a “disheartening decline in Sikhs’ reverence for the Akal Takht”, its parallel acting jathedar Bhai Dhian Singh Mand has declared his plan to address the community during Operation Bluestar’s anniversary on “how to restore the significance of the faith’s supreme temporal seat”.
Since the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) doesn’t recognise the parallel acting jathedar, this restricts him from delivering his message from the rostrum of the Akal Takht, so Mand said he will address the community from the Akal Takht complex on June 6, which is 39th anniversary of 1984’s military action to flush out terrorists from the Golden Temple.
Recalling controversial pardoning of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim, sacrilege incidents, and the SGPC’s alleged favoritism for a particular political party, he said: “It is a critical time when the panthic issues demand attention and require the Akal Takht jathedar to go by the established principles and protocols instead of by the words of a particular political party.”
On November 10, 2015, various Sikh bodies had gathered at Chabba village near Amritsar in the name of “Sarbat Khalsa” and appointed former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s assassin Jagtar Singh Hawara as parallel Akal Takht jathedar. Since Hawara was in jail, they made Mand the acting parallel jathedar.
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