Akal Takht asks Sikh community to keep distance from RSS event

The Akal Takht -- the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs -- has asked the community not to extend support to an RSS event to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh in New Delhi on October 25.
The event being organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Delhi could never be supported, Akal Takht head Gurbachan Singh said in a statement issued here today.
He cited an edict issued in 2004 by the then Akal Takht head and said the Sikhs would never extend support to an outfit which tries to interfere in the internal affairs of the community.

The RSS is organizing the event "with a motive to create mess and nothing else", he said.
He said the Sikh community has a separate identity and it has "never interfered in any religion and would never allow any religion or outfit to meddle in its religious matters".
The Akal Takht has never announced to extend support to RSS events and would never do so in the future, Singh said.
Meanwhile, radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa's spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh community members against the RSS, saying it wanted to penetrate "the rank and file" of the community.