Attacking the Haryana government's decision to announce creation of a separate committee for gurdwaras (Sikh shrines) in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called the decision "unconstitutional" and accused the Congress of behaving like the "tyrannical Mughal rulers" to weaken Sikh power.
Terming the announcement made by his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda Sunday for a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for Haryana as a "cheap step", Badal said that the decision was "unfortunate".
"It is unfortunate that the Congress is irrelevantly meddling in the religious affairs of the Sikhs. The Congress party is walking in the footsteps of tyrannical Mughal rulers to weaken the Sikh power. After Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh riots of 1984, this is the third major assault of the Congress against the Sikh community," Badal told media in Patiala, 80 km from here.
"By taking this step, the Congress party has inflicted a serious blow to the Sikh psyche as none of the true Sikhs want any separate committee for the management of gurdwaras. The Haryana government is completely incompetent to enact this separate committee," he said.
Badal claimed that the step by the Hooda government was politically motivated in view of the forthcoming assembly polls in the state.
"I firmly believe that the Congress would never succeed in its nefarious designs to divide the Sikh community and this committee will never come into existence," he asserted.
Haryana's main opposition party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), also criticised the Hooda government for announcing a separate committee for Haryana gurdwaras.