Conspiracies to control Sikh religious bodies must be exposed: Sukhbir Badal

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday called upon Sikhs all over the world to recognise, expose and defeat the deep-rooted conspiracy to grab control of Sikh religious institutions and to render the Khalsa Panth totally leaderless.

Addressing a seminar organised by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib, the ninth Guru, here, Badal said the country desperately needed to follow the footsteps of Guru Sahib and uphold the values of secularism, human rights and civil liberties for which he made an unparalleled and supreme sacrifice.

“Guru Tegh Bahadur sahib is the only example in the world of a great religious figure sacrificing his life to defend a religion which was not his own. The country needs to follow Guru Sahib as the greatest symbol of religious tolerance and communal harmony.”

Asserting that Guru Sahib stood for secularism and protection of human rights, Badal said these beliefs were also the cornerstone of SAD governments, with Parkash Singh Badal always standing vigil to these values to ensure 15 clear years of peace and communal harmony in the state.

Badal warned that the nefarious games being played to weaken the Khalsa Panth as well as Panthic institutions could prove extremely dangerous for peace and communal harmony.

“The Khalsa Panth today is under an unprecedented ideological and political attack. Powerful elements in the country have resorted to the age-old strategy of trying to grab control of the three apex religio-political institutions of the Sikhs -- Shri Akal Takhat Sahib, the SGPC and SAD -- by luring opportunistic traitors within the community and sponsoring their vicious social and mainstream media campaigns to defame Akali leadership and mislead the Sikh masses.

“What we have been witnessing in Punjab in the past nearly 13 years is the unfolding of a conspiracy of misinformation to mislead the community. The aim of these anti Sikh conspirators and their stooges is to deprive Sikhs of their right to serve their holy places through their own democratically elected religious representatives. Their final objective is to dilute and destroy the separate identity of the Khalsa Panth by grabbing control of our sacred historical shrines and running these as per the designs of the non-Sikhs,” Badal added.

--IANS

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