States: Punjab; Contending Clergy

India Today
Sep 14,1998

PUNJAB
Contending Clergy

A bemused SGPC watches helplessly as the struggle for power among the Sikh high priests intensifies and begins to tell on Akali politics.

Ranjit Singh (centre) flanked by Manjit and Kewal In Sikh circles, clergy and controversy are increasingly becoming synonymous, just as religion and politics are. Of late, the warring high priests have not been preaching religious sermons but trading charges of corruption and religious misconduct. Last week, the no-holds-barred war led to an unprecedented crisis in the clergy, leaving the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), their appointing authority, embarrassed and groping for a way out.

On one side of this battle of attrition is Ranjit Singh, jathedar of the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of prayer and politics. On the other are Manjit Singh, head priest of Takht Keshgarh Sahib and Kewal Singh, head priest of Takht Damdama Sahib. Besides its repercussions on Akali politics, the issue threatens to play spoilsport at the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth scheduled early next year.

Things came to a head when Ranjit banned his rivals from the clergy's meetings at the Akal Takht after accusing them of "misappropriating" donations collected from Sikhs in India and abroad for the World Sikh Council and a private real estate project. On their part, Manjit and Kewal denied the allegations and instead charged the Akal Takht chief of "gross religious misconduct".

As the charges and counter-charges flew thick and fast, a reluctant SGPC chief G.S. Tohra was forced to mediate though the chances of a reconciliation were slim. Ranjit insisted that a patch-up was possible only if the two head priests submitted detailed accounts for the funds received and spent. Going a step further, he threatened to summon Manjit and Kewal to the Akal Takht to explain their "financial fraud". "Under no circumstances will I let them get away with misappropriating the sangat's donations," he said. "They have lowered the holy status of the takht by their deeds."

Though Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal sought to downplay the row by terming it a "family affair", jitters among moderate Akalis are palpable. Ostensibly worried about the political fallout in view of the hardline Akalis rallying round Ranjit, Badal sent his own emissaries to placate the priests.

Badal's perceived proximity to Manjit and Kewal, who requested him to intervene, has made his task an uphill one. Much to the moderate Akalis' chagrin, Ranjit also directed his ire against Badal's close aide Barjinder Singh Hamdard, editor of the Punjabi daily Ajit, and accused him of "blasphemous writings". In a signed editorial, Hamdard had hit out at the jathedar for "turning the Akal Takht into a thana" that handed down arbitrary punishment to the Sikhs.

At the heart of the row lies an intense struggle for power and pelf among the head priests. Added to this are their attempts to usurp and exercise religious authority according to their own political affiliations and individual preferences. For long known to be the handmaiden of the all-powerful Tohra, the clergymen found themselves at odds after Ranjit began asserting himself in religious matters.

It was in December 1996 when he was freed from life sentence in the Nirankari chief murder case that Ranjit upstaged Manjit as patron of the World Sikh Council. Then came the dogged efforts by Ranjit to procure the council accounts from Manjit who washed his hands of it. "Holding me accountable for the council funds is a conspiracy to malign me," maintains Manjit.

Ranjit, on the other hand, claims to have in his possession a "plethora of receipts" from Sikhs abroad who had made hefty donations to Manjit to become the council's members. He is also reported to have received complaints against Manjit and Kewal for alleged financial malfeasance in the private real estate project floated by them.

The funds issue apart, Ranjit's ban on having langar (community meal) at tables in gurdwaras abroad further widened the rift. Manjit and Kewal dissociated themselves from the directive ex-communicating six Canadian Sikh leaders -- close to Manjit -- for violating the edict. In the war of missives that ensued, Ranjit banned the entry of the high priests to the Akal Takht.

Implicit in Ranjit's recent verdicts has been his attempt to redefine the procedure of issuing edicts by apportioning to the Akal Takht jathedar the final say in religious issues. His aggression has made him the enfant terrible for not just the other priests and moderate Akalis but also Tohra who has a bone to pick with Ranjit after the jathedar hauled him up at the Akal Takht in connection with the Nirankari case.

The clergy spat also does not augur well for the 300th anniversary celebrations of the Khalsa. The SGPC and the Badal Government have kept Ranjit out of all celebration committees while Manjit has been given a prominent role in all programmes. "The clergy's conflict has seriously undermined the moral authority of the august takhts," says J.S. Ahluwalia, chairman of Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, a Sikh think tank. "It may rob the Khalsa celebrations of sheen and shine." Adds Sikh scholar Bhai Ashok Singh Bagrian: "Any attempt to effect a patchwork solution and push the muck raised by the jathedars under the carpet would further erode their credibility."

The SGPC is now under pressure to stem the rot. "Only decisive action by the SGPC can pre-empt the religious row affecting Akali politics," says Punjab Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh. But Tohra has limited options. Dealing with the defiant Ranjit is not easy, for he has made it clear that he will not step down even if asked to. "I'm not an SGPC employee," he says mockingly. Sacking the head priests is equally difficult in view of the ambiguous provisions of the Gurdwara Act of 1925. There have also been demands to institutionalise their appointment and define their powers. That again is a tall order for Tohra, whose penchant for a pliant clergy is an open secret. It would take all his manipulative skills to find a way to get the feuding priests around. Till then, the free-for-all will continue to take its toll.

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