Punjab: SAD removes ex-IAS officer as adviser to working prez

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has removed ex-IAS officer Darbara Singh Guru as adviser to party’s working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar less than a week after his appointment.

The party took the decision on Saturday after Guru’s appointment ran into controversy over his alleged role in firing on protesters who came out on roads after five saroops of Guru Granth Sahib were burnt due to an accidental fire in a gurdwara in Nakodar in 1986. Guru was an ADC and officiating as deputy commissioner of Jalandhar when the CRPF opened fire on the protesters, killing four youths.

Relatives of the victims had opposed his appointment. Guru has denied his role in that case. “The issue is being raised after 38 years only to defame me and the SAD because of my appointment as adviser to the Akali Dal working president,” said Guru. He said that whenever he contests elections or is appointed to a prominent post, this issue surfaces again only with the motive to defame him.

Guru remained principal secretary of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary election once and the state assembly twice as a SAD candidate.

Last month, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had appointed party’s secretary general Balwinder Singh Bhundar as the working president over impending process of punishment from the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, for the mistakes committed when the SAD-BJP was in power in the state from 2007 to 2017.