Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, while answering questions from agitated Akali Dal members assured the Lok Sabha that the Union government has got in touch with administrations in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to take appropriate action against the head of the Sacha Sauda's so-called religious chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who hurt Sikh sentiments by dressing up like the 10th guru of the Sikh community Guru Gobind Singh.

"Nobody can be allowed to hurt the sentiments of another religion. We share the sentiments of the Sikh community. It is an unfortunate incident. We have instructed the governments of Punjab and Haryana to take appropriate action against the guilty," he said.

The matter was raised by Dr Rattan Singh, member of Lok Sabha from Tarn Taran and Saranjit Singh Dhillon, who alleged that the Congress party was behind engineering violence against the Akalis.

"This is not the first time that Congress has done it. In the past as well they had done the same. They want to bring a bad name to the Shiromani Akali Dal rule by resorting to such tricks. The sect had openly campaigned for the Congress party in the recent Assembly elections," the duo told rediff.com in a conversation with this correspondent.

Interestingly, Prakash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal too had sought the blessings of the man at the centre of controversy as shown by a picture printed by a leading English daily from Chandigarh.

In the recently Assembly elections, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley and Navjot Singh Sidhu went to meet the same man as he his followers called premis could influence at least 8 Assembly seats that were being contested by the BJP nominees.