The Sehajdhari Sikh Party held a press conference at Press Club Chandigarh today in relation to the newly passed Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Bill 2014 passed by the Hooda Govt. yesterday. Hailing the decision of the Govt for considering the long standing demand of the Sikhs of Haryana Dr.P.S.Ranu National President of SSP said that the definition of SIKH in the bill is too fanatic and is not in consonance with the parent Act which dilutes and devides the Sikh minority into various sub minorities. The parent Act 1925 defines Sikh as a follower of Shri Guru Granth Sahib and ten Gurus and have no other religion, wheras the new bill states that he is follower of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and ten Gurus with unshorn hairs instead of that ‘ have no other religion’. Now if any Hindu or Christian with unshorn hairs is believer in Sikhism then he can be a Sikh but the born Sikhs will not be in the category of Sikh if they are not keeping unshorn hairs.
Dr. Ranu said that though the Sehajdhari Sikhs have been defined in the Bill but they have not been considered as voters. He said when we are well recognized under the community in the Act 1925 then why the Bill has ignored our rights of voting. He said that since 80 % of the Sikh population in Haryana is of the ‘Sehajdhari Sikhs’ who have no other religions except Sikhism and are the integral part of the Sikh religion and are duly recognized and defined in the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925. Depriving the large chunk of these Sikhs of their voting rights will violate the article 26 of the Indian Constitution which provides them their constitutional right.
The Sehajdhari Sikh Party has represented the Government and the Governor seeking amendment under section 56 of the HSGM Bill 2014 where the Govt. has the right to amend any discrepancy in the bill. They alarmed the Haryana Govt that making a group of the Sikh Community happy and ignoring the majority of Sikh population may backfire the Hooda Govt. in the forthcoming elections if Sehajdharis are not given due representation as per their population and place in the community.Its mentionable here that for quite a time the SGPC Amritsar which has its representatives only from the category of Amritdhari Sikhs has been agitating with support of the Akali Dal in Punjab and devising means and methods to disfranchise majority of Sikhs who are Sehajdharis. All of them wanted to remove the Sehajdharis from the main stream of Sikhism and there was a deep rooted conspiracy behind the same to pide and weaken the community which is a minority. Their politics was backed by Anti-Sikh Forces to create a wedge between the already fragmented minority and a new minority has been given birth within the minority by the notification issued by the Union Home Ministry on 8 Oct 2003 when all those Sikhs with shorn hairs including Sehajdhari Sikhs were debarred for voting in SGPC. The said notification was challenged by the Sehajdharis and it was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 20.12.2011 and the elections held in 2011 are said to be at nullity. 170 elected members of the SGPC could not even hold a meeting and are functionless. Though an appeal has been filed by the SGPC against the Orders of the High Court but no stay has been granted on the verdict of High Court and the matter is pending adjudication in the Supreme Court and only a 15 Members Executive Committee of the old house has been authorized by the Court to carry out the functions of the SGPC.