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Mann walks out as Tohra gets 25th consecutive term

Brushing aside a protest by members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Gurcharan Singh Tohra was re-elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee for the 25th consecutive term today.

The election was held during the SGPC's annual general house meeting at the Teja Singh Samundri Hall inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.

As SAD (Badal) supporters who had packed the house decided to retain the office-bearers and executive committee members elected in November last year, the Amritsar Dal president, Simranjit Singh Mann, and four of his colleagues walked out, protesting against the ''undemocratic'' functioning.

"We demanded a discussion on the resolution proposing to retain last year's functionaries, but Mr Tohra did not allow this," Mann told reporters later.

The hard-line Akali leader said the house was being run according to the "whims and fancies of Mr Tohra" and discussions on important issues related to the Sikhs were not allowed.

"Every year we [the SGPC] make a number of demands through resolutions in the general house, but so far not even a single demand has been acceded to," he said.

The trouble began at the beginning of the meeting, when Tohra started briefing the house about his closed-door meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the SAD (Badal) chief.

At this point, SAD (Badal) leader Surjan Singh Thekedar, who is not a member of the SGPC, stood up and said Badal had desired that last year's office-bearers and executive committee members should be retained in view of the tri-centenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth next year.

When Jagdev Singh Talwandi, another Akali politician, began speaking in support of Thekedar's proposal, Jaswant Singh of the Amritsar Dal got up and protested, saying the house had not been taken into confidence on this proposal which was known to a few members before the meeting.

He demanded a discussion on the issue, but was disallowed by Tohra.

This prompted Mann, Jaswant Singh, Harjinder Singh, Baldev Singh and Jagdhir Singh to walk out of the meeting.

The resolution on continuing with last year's office-bearers and executive committee members was then adopted unanimously by the house.

UNI

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