Protest held against Jaswant Thekedar for seeking Order for Sale of Gurdwara Miri Piri Sahib

London : Sikhs, organised protest against Jaswant Singh Thekedar and his associates for seeking an order for sale of Gurdwara Miri Piri Sahib, Southall, on June 10 last from 7.30 pm to 9 pm outside MATV studio in Wembley.A large number of men and women held placards and raised slogans against Thekedar. The slogans ranged from “Shame, Shame”, “Gali gali mein shor hai, Thekedar chor hai” to “Sale of gurdwara will not be allowed”.Gurdwara Vice-President Sukhwinder Singh said, “The Gurdwara property was bought and built by donations from the Sangat and loans. The loans and mortgage were returned from Guru’s golak. Sohan Singh was only the trustee and had no right to sell or give away the Gurdwara to anyone. However, Thekedar allegedly made Sohan Singh sign papers that gave him two-thirds of share in the property. This therefore became a private property in the eyes of law. The truth is that the order for sale was sought by Thekedar in the first place. Sohan Singh had only defended and resisted as much as he could. As both parties didn’t want to sell their respective shares to each other, the Court has ordered the sale in the open market to go to the highest bidder, no matter who he is.” He presented documents and letters to this effect.
Sukhwinder Singh further added that, “Sohan Singh has always maintained that he is ready to make a trust for his share of the property. It’s only Jaswant Singh who wants to keep it as his private enterprise, in his and his wife’s name.” He said that if Thekedar wanted to resolve this issue, he should either take money he wants and part with his share so that Sangat can buy it or alternatively, if he wishes to do the right thing, then he must make a trust for the gurdwara and seek forgiveness from the Sangat.
Gurdwara president Mahender Singh Rathour said that Thekedar had left Gurdwara conditions to deteriorate and hadn’t spent any money on the premises, instead used all the donation for his personal interest. He mentioned that when they had returned to the Gurdwara in February 2015, they had found it in utter state of disrepair and neglect, filthy and infested and rubbish included alcohol bottles and beer cans”.
Gurdwara General Secretary Pritpal Singh said, “Thekedar was broke when he came to this country. He had no money and was helped by people to settle down. So his claims in the court that his wife sold her jewelllery to help him buy Gurdwara, are false.”Manmohan Singh Khalsa of Dal Khalsa, said, “Thekedar should never have been trusted. He carries out anti-Panthic agenda through his propaganda programmes at MATV. Who pays for Thekedar’s programmes?” He also mentioned that he had personally gone to Germany to collect funds to help buy land for the Gurdwara. Many women members of the congregation also expressed their anguish at the order for sale of the Gurdwara. They claimed that they had requested Thekedar many times that he was collecting funds for the Gurdwara but he should at least put locks on ladies toilets, but he never did. They also informed that Gurdwara roof leaked and Thekedar, instead of holding repairs, put buckets underneath to catch water. They also informed that the place was so unhygienic that rodents, pests and cockroaches had infested the kitchen. Visibly upset, many of them mentioned that Thekedar had completely emptied the kitchen and food donations in the Gurdwara were also taken out to be sold.The organisers also registered protest against MATV for allowing false propaganda to go on through Thekedar’s programmes that it airs twice a week. They mentioned that these programmes had been used to defame Panthic activists, leaders as well as Sikh media in the UK.