Avtar Singh Makkar

Avtar SIngh (Makkar)

Avtar Singh Makkar was elected as the 39th president of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) - the mini-parliament of Sikh religion. He is a retired Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) officer belongs to Ludhiana and was a senior vice president of the SGPC. The SGPC manages hundreds of gurudwaras - Sikh religious shrines - spread across Punjab and has an annual budget of over Rs.1.8 billion.

He was the first person who publically drops his surname """Makkar""" which shows unity in sikhism. He said using caste as surnames is voilation of sikh rehat maryada as he said that sikhism does not support casteism. Guru Gobind Singh gave one caste one surname to all thats singh, But Media still using Makkar as his surname.