Chandigarh, Aug 7 (Inditop.com) A body representing Indians in North America Friday appealed to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to pardon two Sikhs in Canada ex-communicated 23 years ago for serving food on tables in a gurdwara.
“We are appealing to Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to convince SGPC to pardon Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal and Balwant Singh Gill, presidents of Ross Gurdwara and Surrey Gurdwara, respectively,” Vikram Bajwa, secretary of Indian Immigrants in North America (IINA) told reporters here.
“They were declared offenders and ousted from the Sikh community in 1986. Their only fault was that they organised a ‘langar’ (community kitchen) on tables that offended the sentiments of Akal Takht. However, Sikh populace of Vancouver has full faith in them and supports them,” he said.
SGPC is the apex Sikh body based in Amritsar and Akal Takht is the highest temporal seat of Sikhism.
Bajwa said there are at least 15 Sikhs staying in North America who have been similarly ex-communicated from the community.
IINA is an umbrella organisation with a membership of 37 organisations representing NRIs from different communities and religions in North America.
Bajwa, who runs a real estate business in San Francisco, US, has come here with five members of IINA. They intend to meet Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC president Paramjit Singh Sarna on this issue.
