Bhai Balbir Singh ‘ardasia’ of Golden Temple who refused siropa to Badal joins AAP
Holds Badal family fully responsible for sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and shielding the accused
5 Dariya News
Chandigarh 27-Jan-2017
Bhai Balbir Singh ‘ardasia’ (priest) of Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) who had refused to present ‘Siropa’(robe of honor) to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in protest against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib today joined Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) here in the presence of senior party leaders.Bhai Balbir Singh stated that he refused ‘siropa’ to Badal because he was upset over continues desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and also came to know that Badal family is giving financial help to those involved in the heinous act. He said that sacrilege incidents at this scale would not be possible without the active involvement of ruling party. “My protest was against failure of government to arrest the guilty of sacrilege”, he said.He also said that he would work to maintain the respect of Guru Granth Sahib and AAP leadership has given him an assurance to punish the guilty of sacrilege of Holy Scripture. He added that every Sikh and whosoever follow the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib feels the pain of sacrilege incidents.Before formally joining ASAP, Bhair Balbir Singh had earlier announced his support to Jarnail Singh who is contesting against Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi.Sanjay Singh national General Secretary of AAP and in charge of Punjab and Gurpreet Singh Waraich AAP state convener welcomed Bhai Balbir Singh into the party fold and assured him that sanctity of Guru Granth Sahib would be maintained and all accused involved in the sacrilege would be arrested and given exemplary punishment.Bhagwant Mann AAP campaign committee Chairman said that Bhai Balbir Singh represented the sentiments of whole Sikh Community. AAP dialogue committee Chairman Kanwar Sandhu also expressed gratitude to Bhai Balbir Singh for joining AAP.It is recalled that Bhai Balbir Singh had refused to honor Badal with the traditional ‘siropa’ when the latter visited Golden Temple to pay obeisance on December 12, 2016. Bhai Balbir Singh was also victimized by the SGPC for denying ‘siropa’ to the Chief Minister and transferred out of Amritsar.