Chandigarh: A controversy has surfaced over All India Sikh Students Federation (Peer Mohammad) chief Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad’s decision to not to hand over the leadership of the group to the students.
Notably, AISSF chief had declared, on September 13, 2016 to handover the leadership of the organization to students on March 14, 2017. He had also constituted a coordination committee of 13 students and Jagroop Singh Chema (a non-student) was appointed as coordinator of the committee.
Two of the co-ordination Committee members namely Anmoldeep Singh and Bhupinder Singh issued a written statement on April 02 accusing Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad for stepping back from his promise to handover the leadership of AISSF to the students. Talking to the Sikh Siyasat News (SSN) over phone Anmoldeep Singh said that another co-ordination committee member Arshdeep Singh was also with them in this regard.
“We are very concerned as Bhai Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad has retracted from the commitment which he had made at Akal Takht Sahib few months back. March 14 has passed but neither he resigned from his post nor he handed over leadership to the students”, said Anmoldeep Singh.
Sikh Siyasat News (SSN) also talked to the AISSF cheif Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad to get his response on this issue. Taking to SSN over phone, the AISSF chief confirmed that such an announcement was made on Spet. 13 but added that it was not possible for him to handover the leadership of the organization to students at this stage as no capable students’ leadership has emerged to take over the responsibilty.
Criticising Anmoldeep Singh and Bhupinder Singh AISSF chief said alleged that they were motivated by self-interests. He said that Anmoldeep Singh was not a student and he inducted into the coordination committee on the recommendations of Bhupinder Singh. He maintained that Bhupinder Singh was not in Sikhi saroop, hence he was not eligible to take over the responsibility.
Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad also claimed that both Anmoldeep Singh and Bhupinder Singh were already removed form the co-ordination committee ‘two weeks back’.
Peer Mohammad also maintained that Arshdeep Singh was not with the rebel leaders of his group. “Arshdeep Singh has told me that his name was misused by duo in their statement” said he. On the other hand the rebel leaders of AISSF reject Peer Mohammad’s claim in this regard. SSN tried to contact Arshdeep Singh over phone but the contact could not be established.
Meanwhile, in yet another written statement issued on April 7, Bhupinder Singh announced to hold a meeting of students at Akal Takht Sahib on April 9 to chack out future course of action. (originally published on April 08, 2017 at 13:53 hrs IST)
UPDATE: After this news report was published on SSN, Arshdeep Singh contacted the SSN to update that he was supportive of the idea that the leadership of AISSF should be handed over to students. “I had talked to Bhai Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad few days back, but I did not tell him that my name was used by others who are pushing for change of leadership in AISSF. In fact I am supportive of the idea that the leadership of AISSF should be handed over to students and Bhai Karnail Singh should honour his commitment”, said Arshdeep Singh. (updated at 21:26 hrs IST on April 08, 2017)