Farmers Movement Archive

{REPORT CARD} /SGPC PRESIDENT BIBI JAGIR KAUR Remained low-profile, tried to take everyone along

Amritsar With the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) set to elect its next president on November 29 (Monday), the incumbent Bibi Jagir Kaur, who took over when the gurdwara management body was facing a lot of bad press over missing saroops of the Guru Granth Sahib, has had a mixed bag of a tenure. She started with administrative reforms, and was lucky that the farmers’ stir over the three Central farm laws deflected attention from the missing saroops issue. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the SGPC’s finances, she continued charity work. The firmness that the four-time SGPC president showed during her previous tenures was missing to some extent this time. She could not restore the original Nanakshahi calendar, despite being its supporter. Observers claim this was due to pressure from the Sant Samaj that has ties with the SAD and demands the continuation of its amended version.‘Rose above political differences’Addressing the centenary event of Nankana Sahib massacre in Gurdaspur, she apologised to the community for the mistakes SGPC functionaries had committed in the past and appealed to other Sikh organisations to cooperate with it.Parampal Singh Sabhra, a leader of Alliance of Sikh Organisations, said, “If we evaluate her performance rising above political differences, she has announced the opening of the first Sikh Missionary College for Women at Tarn Taran. She allowed Sikh missionary institutions to speak from the stage of Sri Darbar Sahib, even as traditional Sikh seminaries and sects objected. She also ordered republishing of many precious books, which have been out of print for decades.”She tried to woo Sikh hardliners, staunch critics of the SAD that controls the apex gurdwara body, and avoided a clash on Operation Bluestar anniversary at the Akal Takht on June 6. She even endorsed the jathedar’s views on pro-Khalistan slogans, stating, “This is an expression of the Sikh youth’s ‘josh’ (vehemence). A community losing ‘josh’ is considered dead. We have no objection to it.” No restrictions were imposed on Sikh hardliners and splinter Akali groups, winning her the appreciation of the rival Sikh groups.Sikh radicals also hailed her move to put on display the holy bir of the Guru Granth Sahib that was hit with a bullet of the Indian Army at the Akal Takht. Instead of locking horns with Sikh bodies over the plan of razing the Golden Temple’s oldest serai, the Guru Ram Das Niwas, where the India Army, allegedly, committed atrocities on the devotees in its rooms, she put it on hold.She also announced the preservation of a heritage structure discovered on the premises of the Golden Temple during the construction of a building. Former Takht Damdama Sahib jathedar Giani Kewal Singh, who heads the Panthic Coordination Committee, said, “Bibi Jagir Kaur took some good steps, but these were at her own level. She should have brought the community together.”A section of Sikhs opposed her move of giving the Indian men’s hockey team with ₹1 crore for winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. This did not go well with its employees as well; she appeased them with a salary hike. The Damdami Taksal criticised her on issues like the appointment of granthis of the Golden Temple. The Taksal wanted the granthis to be chosen from its students, while she said that recruitment must be open for students of modern missionary institutions as well.

Hindustan Times

28-11-2021

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