Bajwa slams Badal for opposing Haryana SGPC

Recalling a failed legislation on gurdwaras, Punjab Congress chief Pratap Singh Bajwa launched a frontal attack on Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal over his opposition against the recently enacted Haryana SGPC law.
Bajwa accused Badal of playing political opportunism on the issue which has been in the eye of a controversy after Congress-led Haryana enacted the SGPC bill which allows Sikhs of Haryana to manage shrines in the state.
The issue first cropped up in 1972 over a demand for all India Gurdwara legislation, that would have given representation to Sikhs from all over the country and ensured their participation in the management of their own shrines, Bajwa said in a statement.

However, Badal reneged from this demand despite three drafts of the proposed legislation having been prepared which were consigned to the dustbin by the SGPC and the Akali Dal, he said, adding that Badal's monopoly over the Sikh body would have ended with it.
Badal is portraying his proposed agitation as Sikh community versus Congress fight, targeted at reviving the Akali Dal base whose erosion had been reflected in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Bajwa said.
The so-called fight against the bifurcation of the Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) was to divert the anger among people against the government, he said.

The Congress leader also hit out at Badal for portraying SAD as "a Punjabi party at one time" and as a religious one at other times "depending upon your convenience".
The proposed 'morcha' (movement) by SAD from July 27 was the last "hoax call" of Badal to which the people of Punjab would not respond.