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Badal ready to attend 'mini Sarbat Khalsa'

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said he had no objection to attend the 'mini Sarbat Khalsa', a meeting of all Sikh religious organisations and sects, convened by Akal Takht chief Bhai Ranjit Singh at Amritsar on February 2.

"If invited we will go to Amritsar," Badal told reporters in Chandigarh after the meeting he had convened to chalk out the detailed programme to celebrate the tercentenary of the Khalsa Panth this year.

But the chief minister said he is yet to receive an invitation from the Akal Takht jathedar.

Ranjit Singh has called the Sikh religious bodies and institutions to the Golden Temple to review the arrangements for the Khalsa celebrations. Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal circles view it as an attempt to prevent his removal as Akal Takht chief.

In a veiled threat to eject Ranjit Singh using their brute majority in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the provisions of the Gurdwaras Act, 131 members of the Badal faction in the SGPC had urged him to withdraw his hukamnama (edict) ordering a truce between the chief minister and SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

Tohra and his supporters boycotted the meeting called in Chandigarh by Badal.

Later, briefing reporters, Badal said Tohra and Manjit Singh Calcutta, senior general secretary of the SGPC, were invited for the meeting, though not the Akal Takht jathedar. Kesgarh Takht jathedar Prof Manjit Singh was present, however.

Badal said vice-president Kewal Singh and general secretary Balbir Singh Pannu represented the SGPC. Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, senior Akali politician and Disciplinary Action Committee chief Jagdev Singh Talwandi, and former SAD president Surjan Singh Thekedar also attended.

The chief minister denied offering the Akal Takht jathedar's post to Prof Darshan Singh Ragi, a former head of the Takht, the highest temporal and spiritual seat of the Sikhs.

Badal said he had met the professor, but not made any such offer. "Perhaps Mr Tohra made the offer," he said.

UNI

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