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Giani Puran Singh suffers heart attack after being installed as Akal Takht jathedar

Harkirat Singh and Jaspal Singh Sidhu in Amritsar

Giani Puran Singh, the newly appointed acting jathedar of the Akal Takht, suffered a heart attack shortly after his installation in the Golden Temple complex on Monday afternoon.

Akali Dal sources told UNI that the Giani was admitted to the Guru Ram Das hospital.

Punjab Finance Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh and senior Akali leader Jagdev Singh Talwandi have rushed to the hospital, which is run by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.

Doctors said Giani Puran Singh suffered an acute heart attack involving occlusion to the left coronary artery leading to interior wall infraction. Such an attack is normally caused by emotional stress or overexcitement, they said.

A medical bulletin issued by the hospital described his condition as stable but serious. He is to remain under observation for 72 hours.

Earlier, without fulfilling suspended jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh's pre-condition, and despite a boycott by various Panthic organisations, the Badal-dominated SGPC installed Giani Puran Singh as acting jathedar.

In the absence of Golden Temple head granthi Giani Mohan Singh, his two deputies, Giani Charan Singh and Giani Gurbachan Singh, presented siropas (robes of honour) to the acting jathedar, thereby formally recognising him as head of the Akal Takht, the highest spiritual and temporal seat of the Sikhs.

The ceremony was virtually a show of strength by the ruling Akali Dal in support of Chief Minister and party president Parkash Singh Badal. There was an impressive gathering with people being ferried from all over the state for the 'coronation'. The open space between the Akal Takht and Darshani Deori, where the ceremony was held, was packed and so were parts of the parikrama (perimeter).

Badal did not attend the ceremony, but a number of state ministers were present.

SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra and his supporters boycotted the ceremony as did the other Akali factions --the Akali Dal (Amritsar), the Akali Dal (Panthic) and the Democratic Akali Dal led by Kuldip Singh Wadala.

The militant Damdami Taksal, which is perceived to be close to Giani Puran Singh, too boycotted today's ceremony. Except for the Gill faction of the All-India Sikh Students' Federation, all other AISSF groups attended the ceremony.

Tohra has not surprisingly refused to recognise Giani Puran Singh, saying his appointment had violated all historical Sikh conventions and tradition. At a press conference, he dubbed the new jathedar a "sarkari [government] jathedar" whose appointment and installation were a "brute expression of State power which Sikhs will never accept in the long run".

Despite the closure of SGPC offices by Tohra, there was no hindrance in the ceremony and it ended peacefully with a call by Giani Puran Singh to all Panthic organisations and sects to give up the path of confrontation and join hands to celebrate the Khalsa tercentenary.

As expected, Bhai Ranjit Singh declined to step down from the office from which he was suspended on February 10, and indicated that he would go before the Sikh Sangat. "I will call a Sarbat Khalsa, [a conclave of representatives of Sikh religious institutions] after April 15 as I do not want to obstruct the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations," he said today.

On Sunday, he said he would give up office only if Giani Mohan Singh honoured Giani Puran Singh with a siropa at the installation ceremony. In view of the concept of miri and piri (unity of temporal and spiritual power) and the Sikh traditions, he said official recognition to a designated jathedar of the Akal Takht can be accorded only if the Golden Temple head priest honours him with a siropa.

The suspended jathedar said if Giani Puran Singh is granted recognition by the head granthi, he will summon a Sarbat Khalsa at the Golden Temple complex and announce his resignation from the jathedar's post. "However, if Giani Mohan Singh fails to do so, then I will continue to be jathedar of the Akal Takht," he claimed.

Bhai Ranjit Singh's announcement led to hectic activity in the Badal camp with senior politicians holding consultations with Giani Mohan Singh to persuade him to present a siropa to Giani Puran Singh. Veteran Akali politician and chairman of the party's disciplinary action committee Jagdev Singh Talwandi, a close relative of Giani Mohan Singh, was assigned to convince the head priest.

The pre-condition was a matter of concern for the chief minister's camp, particularly after Mohan Singh refused the acting jathedar's post offered to him by the pro-Badal dominated SGPC at its meeting on February 10.

Giani Mohan Singh's reluctance had forced the executive to appoint Puran Singh as acting head of the Takht. According to the Badal camp, concern for his only son's safety is the reason for Mohan Singh's refusal to accept the post.

It was alleged that his son, who lives in Canada, had told Giani Mohan Singh on the telephone that he could be killed by Sikh radical groups abroad who support Bhai Ranjit Singh.

Mohan Singh had initially described Puran Singh's appointment as "anti-Panthic", but later accorded recognition to the appointment when Talwandi met him on February 11.

EARLIER REPORT:
Faith and loathing in Amritsar

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