Gurdaspur gurdwara chief denied entry into Golden Temple

October 14, 2017

Amritsar, October 14: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) officials on Saturday stopped Gurdwara Chhota Ghallughara (Gurdaspur) chief Johar Singh from entering the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Johar Singh had come to perform sewa at the shrine under ‘tankhah’ (religious punishment) awarded by parallel jathedars of Sikh temporal seats designated at the radicals’ Sarbat Khalsa. However, he was denied even entry to the shrine, when he began to enter from Guru Ram Das Sarai.

He faced ‘tankhah’ as he was on helm of the affairs of the Gurdwara where his colleague and key office bearer of the gurdwara, Buta Singh, was caught in comprising position with a woman. Akal Takht has already excommunicated Buta Singh.

On behalf of the SGPC, Golden Temple manager Sulakhan Singh was there at the entry to stop Johar Singh. Sulakhan Singh told Johar Singh that he could not perform sewa as he has not been awarded tankhah by the official jathedars. When Johar Singh urged that he be allowed to listen to the gurbani kirtan (religious sermons), also part of the ‘tankhah’, the manager did not entertain the plea.

On the other hand, Johar Singh did not show any retaliation and returned after doing ardas (prayer) from outside the shrine. Heavy security arrangements were done by police to prevent any clash.

Notably, the SGPC had restricted him on Thursday from appearing before parallel ‘jathedars’ and evicted him from the premises of the shrine forcefully. This led clash between supporters of parallel jathedars and SGPC task force. Three persons were injured in the clash.

The parallel jathedars, while awarding tankhah, asked him to listen to gurbani kirtan, clean shoes and utensils at the Golden Temple. Johar Singh accepted but did not appear before Sikh clergy at Akal Takht on Friday. Taking action, the Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh declared him ‘tankhaya’ (guilty of religious misconduct).

Sourced from hindustantimes.com