Harmohinder Singh Chattha

Harmohinder Singh Chattha was Haryana's finance minister in 2014, when the Akal Takht moved to excommunicate him over the Haryana Government's decision to take the state's gurdwaras out of the SGPC's hands. We treat him as a living person, so the claims here are attributed to the papers and people who made them.

The Tribune's report of 10 to 11 July 2014 refers to "the Chattha committee report that recommended the formation of a separate gurdwara committee", which he submitted in 2007. The paper said that in that report he had recommended that the state seek the President's approval, but that on 9 July he dismissed the suggestion and said the Assembly was empowered to form the HSGPC. It reported that the Shiromani Akali Dal and the SGPC held that the bill had to go to the Centre, and that the Akal Takht opposed a separate committee. Wikipedia says the Haryana Assembly passed the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill on 11 July 2014.

Key moments

• 2007: the report of the committee he headed, which The Tribune says recommended a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana.
• 9 July 2014: he dismisses the suggestion that the Government seek the President's approval for the bill.
• 11 July 2014: the Assembly passes the bill, according to Wikipedia.
• 16 July 2014: The Tribune reported from Amritsar that the Akal Takht moved to excommunicate Chattha and the HSGPC leaders Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Deedar Singh Nalvi, for "conspiring to divide the SGPC". Hindustan Times, cited by Wikipedia, ran the story under the headline "Akal Takht excommunicates Haryana minister, two Sikh leaders"; we could not open it.

Reactions: The Tribune of 17 July 2014 reported that SGPC member Bibi Kiranjot Kaur, a granddaughter of Master Tara Singh (the paper does not say through which parent), asked what the hurry was, that Dal Khalsa called the edict unprincipled and alleged that the Akali Dal's core committee had drafted it, and that Harvinder Singh Sarna called it a black day and asked for it to be withdrawn. On 18 July it quoted the former Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti saying the three should have been summoned and heard first, and the former Jathedar Giani Bhagwan Singh calling the decision politically motivated. The Damdami Taksal's head, Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa, said he would not question the move but urged the Jathedar not to act in haste. The sources we opened do not say whether the edict was later withdrawn.

Remembered for: heading the committee whose report fed the separate Haryana body, and the excommunication that followed, which the Akal Takht justified as conspiring to divide the SGPC and its critics called political.