I invite Brahmpura to come and guide us, says Dhindsa

GS Paul
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 9 

A couple of days after forming a ‘parallel’ Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa on Thursday paid obeisance at the Golden Temple with his supporters.

Accompanied by former SAD ‘Taksali’ secretary-general, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, son Parminder Singh Dhindsa, he said that they aim to fight for Panthic as well as core Punjab issues by allying with ‘like-minded’ parties.

He, however, shied away from elaborating over his differences with SAD (Taksali) head Ranjit Singh Brahmpura and said: “He is a very respectable pal. I still ask him to come and guide us but he appears to be adamant to carry on with his party, unmindful of anyone leaving him.”

He said that they were compelled to quit SAD (Sukhbir-led) after it deviated from the core issues related to the Panth and inappropriately used the SGPC platform for “vested political interests”.

“SAD (Badal) abandoned its objectives and misused SGPC, which also deviated from its path. Whatever misdeeds being committed in SGPC was an open secret now. Before 2017 polls, series of sacrilege incidents occurred and now the mysterious disappearance of 267 saroops of Guru Granth Sahib surfaced. 

It all carried on in a secretive manner for political gains and the SGPC too remained mute without bothering to conduct even ‘pashchatap’ (mourning prayers) against saroops which got damaged in 2016 fire incident. Scores of ‘Pathis’ and ‘dhadis’ got out of the job due to corona and SGPC looked the other way. I promise the people of Punjab that if we were entrusted with the responsibility of ‘sewa’, we will punish every everyone responsible for such acts. I warn SGPC officials to beware,” he said.

Sekhwan clarifies stance on Brahmpura

Sekhwan said that Brahmpura’s leadership was not acceptable among the ‘quom’ (community). He said that he (Brahmpura) had wrongly been stating that he was betrayed and not aware of floating new outfit. 

“Prior to our joining Dhindsa’s group, we discussed with Brahmpura numerous times, trying to convince him to merge the ‘taksali’ party and vacate chair for new leader as the quom was not accepting him to lead the party, but he remained obstinate,” he said.

Sekhhwan added: “So, we switched over to Dhindsa’s side. We still stand by the resolution that we vowed to follow during the christening of SAD (Taksali) party from Akal Takht in 2018, but a fresh beginning was the need of the hour.”

Sekhwan told that the party (Dhindsa group) has chalked out its mission in three phases-first one, to bring the Panthic-mind parties on one platform, second, to approach those who prioritize Punjab-issues and third, to set a common minimum interest programme with political parties like the AAP and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

On Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala, one of the founding members of SAD (Taksali), he said, “The day his son (Boney Ajnala) jumped back to Badal Dal, he got incommunicado”.