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Akalis appear to be heading for a split

A meeting of the pro-Tohra faction of the Shiromani Akali Dal today rejected the expulsion of former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

Describing the expulsion as "illegal and unconstitutional", the meeting said the "so-called" political affairs committee (PAC) had no right to expel Tohra.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, former Lok Sabha member Prem Singh Chandumajra, a close confidant of Tohra, said there was no such committee as the PAC under the party constitution.

"When no such committee exists, how can it expel a senior leader from the party?" he said.

The meeting was attended by 10 of the 73 Akali legislators in Punjab, senior leaders Surjan Singh Thekedar and Sukhjinder Singh, and some SGPC members.

Chandumajra claimed that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had decided to expel Tohra to weaken the Akalis and divide the party.

"Mr Tohra's expulsion was not only a fraud against the party but against the entire Sikh community," he said, and warned that for this, Badal would have to face serious consequences and give up the party presidency.

Chandumajra also announced that a campaign would soon be launched to mobilise the masses in a bid to cleanse the party and liberate it from "family control".

For this, he said, an Akali panchayat would be convened after May 20 where Badal would be dethroned as party president.

In a resolution, the Akali leaders appealed to Tohra to lead them to "fight a panthic war against the monopoly of Mr Badal and the undemocratic environment prevailing within the party".

Chandumajra said Badal had not only violated the hukumnama (edict) of the Akal Takht, but defamed the temporal seat of the Sikhs by conspiring to remove Bhai Ranjit Singh as the Takht jathedar.

"The attitude of Mr Badal has led to an internal war within the Panth," he said.

UNI

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