New Delhi : With Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal breathing down the Centre’s neck to prevent a separate panel to run Haryana’s Gurdwaras, the Home Ministry has sent an advisory to the Haryana Government under Article 355 ‘to take appropriate action’ in accordance with the Constitution.
While Badal vowed to lead a movement against “Congress attempt to divide and weaken the Sikh community,” Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda is equally determined to stand by the Sikhs of the state and give them the right to exercise control over their Gurdwaras.
The bone of contention is a legislation moved by Haryana under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. The issue has heated further since Haryana is to go for the Assembly polls in October.
Badal’s Akali Dal is part of the NDA government at the Centre and the BJP is also a partner in his government in Punjab and as such the Centre is trying its best to browbeat Hooda trying to liberate Haryana’s Gurdwaras from the stronghold of the Amritsar-based pro-Akali SGPC (Shiromani
Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee).
What next if Hooda does not relent as hinted by his ministers like H S Chattha and Randeep Singh Surjewala? Article 355 notice is a precursor to Article 356 that empowers the Centre to dismiss the state government, but the Constitutional experts say it is not mandatory for the Centre to follow it up with Article 356.
Badal is pretending that all the noise he is making is not to have a hold over the ‘Golak’ (Gurdwara treasure), asserting that the elected SGPC members in Haryana cannot be removed merely with the help of the Bill brought by the Hooda
government.
