Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti

Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti was Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib for about eight years, from March 2000 to August 2008. He was a granthi at Sri Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) when the SGPC executive picked him to replace Giani Puran Singh, and he left the post saying he had been forced out. He died in Amritsar on 15 May 2021, The Quint reports.

Key moments

• 28 March 2000: The Tribune reports that the SGPC executive sacked Giani Puran Singh as Jathedar and named Vedanti acting Jathedar in his place, to be installed the next day. Only eight of its 15 members attended. Vedanti was one of five high priests who had challenged Puran Singh's hukamnamas.
• 29 March 2000: he asked the SGPC to set out a procedure for appointing and removing Takht Jathedars. The Tribune's 2025 explainer says the SGPC ignored the request.
• 23 July 2004: an edict issued by the Akal Takht under Vedanti as Jathedar declared the RSS anti-Sikh and told Sikhs not to associate with it, including its wing the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat (The Tribune and The Quint).
• 31 December 2004: at an emergency meeting the Sikh high priests and the SGPC decided to recognise the breakaway Damdami Taksal group under Baba Ram Singh. Vedanti said the Akal Takht secretariat held a fax of 17 June 2003 in which Baba Thakur Singh named Ram Singh as the Taksal's 15th head. The Taksal's spokesman alleged that signatures were forged (The Tribune).
• 30 May 2007: after the Sikh clergy accused the Dera Sacha Sauda chief of dressing as Guru Gobind Singh, Vedanti "outrightly rejected" the chief's apology and said Sikhs would keep boycotting him politically and socially, in a peaceful manner (PTI, in The Tribune).
• 5 August 2008: the SGPC executive, meeting at Kurukshetra, accepted his resignation, with 13 of 15 members agreeing. The SGPC said he stepped down on health grounds. Vedanti said the SGPC had forced him out, and that two of its office-bearers had told him he would be sacked at the meeting if he did not quit (The Tribune).

Two dissenting executive members alleged that he was removed under RSS and BJP pressure, and that the decision was taken at an Akali Dal Political Affairs Committee meeting. The Tribune's explainer says he was removed after he refused to be lenient in the Dera Sacha Sauda case. The Tribune also reported that Vedanti told Manjit Singh Calcutta, a veteran SGPC member, that he had offered Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on 24 July 2006 to step down as Jathedar after Badal allegedly pressed him to withdraw the edict against the RSS. Giani Gurbachan Singh was to be installed as officiating Jathedar the next day.

Remembered for: the 2004 edict against the RSS and his stand against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. The Quint's obituary says he took on the RSS, the Dera and politicians. How and why he left the post was disputed.