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Badal flays minorities panel

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has taken strong exception to the endorsement by the National Commission for Minorities of the draft of amendments in the Sikh Gurdwara Act of 1925 proposed by Justice (retired) Harbans Singh, saying the commission had no right and authority to do it.

Talking to reporters, he said the Union home ministry had no business to circulate the draft to all and sundry because only the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, which is governed by the Act, has the right and authority to propose any amendment.

Badal said the Union home ministry had no right to make any unilateral proposal aimed at amending the Act and seek the views of bodies other than the SGPC. He regretted that the ministry was seeking the views of all and sundry though he had spoken to Union Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani.

The chief minister disclosed that he had informed Advani that his ministry was going beyond its brief on the issue of amendments to the Act. ''But it seems that some official in the ministry were going ahead in this regard finding that the leaders are preoccupied with the (Lok Sabha) election,'' he added.

Badal, however, defended reservation for women in the SGPC claiming it was in consonance with the spirit of Sikhism. The amendments, proposed by Justice (retired) Harbans Singh, sought abolition of reservation for both scheduled castes and women.

While the scheduled castes reservation had been on the statue for quite some time, reservation for women was introduced only on the eve of the 1996 SGPC election. But neither the SGPC nor any Akali party had raised any objection to the women's reservation. Sikh tenets do not discriminate against any gender.

Former SGPC chief G S Tohra had defended the women's reservation but criticised its methodology saying all amendments in the Act should be approved by Parliament on the recommendation of two-thirds majority of the SGPC.

Meanwhile, Badal admitted of a financial crisis in the state but said that situation would be normal soon. He did not deny that the Punjab State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited's main office building at Chandigarh had been mortgaged to raise Rs 200 million to bail out the state government. He said a cabinet sub-committee met at Chandigarh yesterday to take stock of the difficult financial situation gripping the state.

''But we will overcome the crisis. The situation will stabilise in the coming few months,'' he said.

UNI

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