Giani Raghbir Singh, the head granthi of the Golden Temple, on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), accusing the Badal family of “grievously hurting” Sikh religious sentiments for political gains and called for a Sarbat Khalsa (grand assembly) to “liberate” the SGPC.
Addressing a press conference in Jalandhar, Giani Raghbir alleged that the Badal family’s decades-long control has institutionalised corruption within the SGPC. The allegations come at a time when the SAD is attempting to regain lost ground through a statewide outreach programme, led by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal, in the run-up to the 2027 assembly elections.
“I’m pained to disclose these anomalies. The SGPC is plagued with massive corruption, ranging from the case of 328 missing ‘saroops’ to arbitrary employee transfers and mismanagement of ‘langar’ funds,” he said. He claimed that the Guru ki Golak (Sikh community chest) was being plundered through the illegal sale of properties, misappropriation of building funds, and questionable leasing of SGPC land.
Giani Raghbir, who was sacked as Akal Takht jathedar by the SGPC executive committee in March last year but remains the Golden Temple head granthi, alleged that the SAD has been derailed over the past decade. He claimed the party, originally formed for the welfare of the Panth (Sikh community), now uses the SGPC as a tool for its leaders.
Listing a series of controversial decisions, Giani Raghbir cited the appointments of former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and Mohammad Izhar Alam, the 2015 pardon granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the clearance for the movie MSG in Punjab, and the subsequent sacrilege incidents that led to the killing of two Sikh youths. “These decisions, taken under the Badal regime, damaged the Sikh Panth on a massive scale,” he said.
He urged Nihang bodies, Sikh Sabhas, and other organisations to convene the Sarbat Khalsa to end the “monopoly of one single family” and fix responsibility for the mismanagement of Sikh affairs. This, he argued, is the only way to restore the autonomy and Panthic status of the committee.
Anticipating a backlash, the head granthi said: “I know I will be removed from my post in the coming days. Even after the Akal Takht issued a ‘hukamnama’ on December 2, 2024, I was pressured by these forces to claim the entire episode was orchestrated by the RSS.”
In the edict, the Sikh clergy declared that the SAD leadership had forfeited its moral right to provide political patronage to the Panth due to its “past sins”. The Akal Takht directed the SAD working committee to accept the resignation of Sukhbir Singh Badal as party president, after holding him tankhaiya (guilty of religious misconduct) for mistakes committed by the party and its government between 2007 and 2017. Following a complaint by rebel Akali leaders, Sukhbir and several senior colleagues underwent tankhah (religious punishment) awarded by the clergy. The late former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was also posthumously stripped of his ‘Fakhr-e-Quam’ title.
