The Centre has modified the composition of the high-level committee set up to supervise commemoration of the 400th Birth Anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur with a few changes that included Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its Chairman and 70 other members.
In a Gazette Notification published on Monday, the Ministry of Home Affairs made the announcement regarding fresh modification in the Committee which is set up to approve policies, plans, programmes and supervise as well as guide the commemoration of 400 Birth Anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur. The Committee also decides broad dates for detailed programmes of celebration. Implementation of the recommendations of this Committee will be supervised by the Executive Committee.
The updated notification mentions “partial modification” in the list of Committee members. The Committee was constituted and notified by the Government of India on October 24, 2020, and later updated on April 5 this year.
Besides Chairman Narendra Modi, other 70 members of the Committee include Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister of Narendra Singh Tomar are among other members of PM Modi’s fresh Cabinet.
Other Ministers include Dharmendra Pradhan, Hardeep Singh Puri, Anurag Singh Thakur, G. Kishan Reddy, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal are also among the members of the Committee.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, newly-elected Punjab Chief Minister S. Charanjit Singh Channi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Thiru M. K. Stalin, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are other members in the Committee.
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P. K. Mishra, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba are other members.
Other Committee members comprise Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Baldev Singh Aulakh, Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Shwait Malik, Lok Sabha MPs S. S. Ahluwalia, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Sunny Deol, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Kirron Kher and Navneet Ravi Rana.
Former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, former Punjab Chief Ministers Parkash Singh Badal and Capt. Amarinder Singh, Former Leaders of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Tarlochan Singh, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Ministry of Culture Secretary Govind Mohan, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President Harjinder Singh Dhami, Gurdwara Patna Sahib Parbandhak Committee President Avtar Singh Hit, and Sikh leaders Gobind Singh Longowal, Bibi Jagir Kaur and Manjinder Singh Sirsa are other members in the Committee.
Former Chief of Army Staff General Joginder Jaswant Singh, Former Chief of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force Birender Singh Dhanoa, Former Indian Ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna, Former Indian Cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Former Indian Hockey Captain Sandeep Singh have also been included in the Committee.
Former MLA from Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar R. P. Singh, senior lawyer and Human Rights Activist H. S. Phoolka, senior lawyer Gurcharan Singh Gill, eminent journalist Barjinder Singh Hamdard, Managing Director of Amul R. S. Sodhi, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University (Amritsar) Prof.(Dr.) Jaspal Singh Sandhu, former Head of Department of Punjabi (University of Delhi) Prof. Jagbir Singh, Eminent Scholar and Author in Cultural Studies, Prof. Amarjit Singh Grewal, Odia Author (Specialist in Sikh History) Sadhna Patri, eminent Agricultural Scientist Gurdip Singh, eminent Ayurvedic Doctor Ramanjit Sihota, eminent Ophthalmologist Gagandeep Kang, eminent Virologist Manjit Singh Gill and Eminent Chef Baldev Singh Dhillon have also got a place in the Committee.