The State Of Affairs

[Singh, Mahan]

Article No. 1

Source: http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic...;archived=False

Half of cops in Punjab are drink, drugs addicts

Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:44 AM IST

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Over half the police officers in the border areas of the prosperous breadbasket state of Punjab were drug addicts or alcoholics, The Times of India reported on Wednesday, quoting a survey by the police deparment.

The survey showed 52 percent of officers in Taran Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts were drinking heavily or abusing substances like heroin.

Inspector-General of Punjab Police R.P. Meena told the newspaper that job stress, long duty hours and easy availability of liquor and drugs were fuelling the problem.

"All the cops who are alcoholics or into drugs will be provided counselling on regular basis," Meena said.

The northern state, which borders Pakistan, witnessed a bitter separatist insurgency by Sikh militants in the 1980s and early 1990s, which was crushed by tough and often controversial tactics by local policemen.

An UNAIDS-backed survey this month showed that India's injecting drug problem may be worse than thought in Punjab, the neighbouring state of Haryana and the federally-administered territory of Chandigarh.

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[Singh, Mahan]

Article No 2

A prisoner's thoughts

Source: ( http://www.akalidalamritsar.com/punjab/Jun...(2)20070627.htm )

Central Jail,

Ludhiana,

24th June 2007.

A prisoner's thoughts

--- The Tribune--??

--- The Tribune is one of the oldest newspapers of the Panjab. It was founded in the late 19th Century by a Sikh philanthropist Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia. It was established in Lahore to compete with the already printed newspaper in English- the Civil and Military Gazette. The Tribune began giving the natives views, while the Gazette saw things though the Imperial Englishman's eyes. The famous Rudyard Kipling began his career in journalism and writing as an apprentice to the Gazette.

After the death of Dyal Singh Majithia The Tribune passed into the Arya Samaji clique a rejuvenated Hindu cult, which saw all other faiths as inferior to Hinduism. Its founder, went to the extent of calling the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak a "dhammi" or pretender. And so in keeping faith in its superiority, The Tribune misses no opportunity in spewing venom and hatred against all religions, other them Hinduism, whether it be Islam, Sikhism, Christianity or the Dalits.

After 1984, the Sikhs went through a bad patch in their history. The Indian state under Indira Gandhi, with the full force of her army, militarily occupied all of Panjab, reduced our holiest shrine the Darbar Sahib complex and thirty six other shrines to rubble and let loose a reign of terror. Instead of good, unbiased and balanced journalism, The Tribune whole heartedly, under the editorship of Prem Bhatia, throwing all ethics of journalism to the wind, supported the Indian state's uncalled for and ruthless action and aggression against the Sikhs. It wrote several editorials against the Sikhs which matched and even out did at times what Arun Shorie of the Indian Express editor, or Girilal Jain the Times of India editor wrote. For any educated Sikh it was hell going through any paper of the time, specially the Tribune.

In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi, successor son of Indira Gandhi committed the genocide of the Sikhs, when he unleashed thousands of Hindus to kill, rape, loot Sikhs all over India. The police was asked by the Indian state to help the Hindus in their lust for Sikh blood, the Indian army was confined to the barracks while Hindu mobs went about spilling Sikh blood. No Hindu was killed much less injured. To this day the Tribune, after twenty three years of those gory days, calls this massacre or genocide of the Sikhs as riots. Riots as any English speaking person knows is a clash between two communities or two groups. If the Arya Samajists, who like the Nazis have Swistika as their symbol, both believing in their superior Aryan heritage, had edited a paper in Germany during the rise of the Nazi party they would have called Hitler's genocide of the Jews, Gypsies, mentally retarded-a riot.

When a Hindu asks for a free press and no shackles to control irresponsible journalism, what does he mean? The editor who is usually a Hindu or if we have a non-Hindu, they would invariably be working for a paper whose proprietorship is Hindu. Therefore, the Hindu editor enjoys full freedom of press and the view of the minority peoples is strictly shut out. In the Tribune it is assured that the editorial page and the following page is reserved for the articles of writers who are invariably Hindus. The letter to the editor column is more or less left for a response from Hindus. Others from Sikhs and minorities are tightly edited, if printed. These two pages glorify the Indian Hindu state, its greatness in governance, history, culture, technology, engineering and military dominance against Pakistan and China.

Currently The Tribune is glorifying Sunita Williams, an American's exploits in space. Previously it was Chawla another American of Hindu origin. Since the founding of the present Hindu Indian state from the times of Jawahar Lal Nehru, through Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi The Tribune has reviled the Americans and upped the Soviets. So have the other Hindu newspapers. If a Hindu can't perform any feat-so let it be one who is an American.

For the last month and a half the Sikhs have been at the receiving end of the Tribune's editorial page. It has written four scathing and acerbic editorials calling us extremists, hard-liners, conspirators, saboteurs and terrorists, over an incident over which the Sikhs have had no control or made a provocation. It's the Hindu cult dera of Sirsa, whose leader has committed a grave act of blasphemy against the Sikh religion and continues to do so. The Sikhs have been at the receiving end once again, because of the false alarm bells raised by The Tribune. India's feared and anti-Sikh para-military forces have been called out all over the Panjab. The Indian army has been put on stand to alert. The Sirsa Dera Godman has had one Sikh killed in cold blood, but no arrest has been effected though it's nearly a month that this cold blooded murder took place. The whole of Bhatinda city was vandalized, the police force beaten up and government property destroyed by the Sirsa seminary mobs. No arrests have been made and not a word against this unruly and murderous behaviour of the Sirsa cult by the Tribune.

The Tribune and other papers of the Indian state preach that India is one, though there is unity in diversity. For the last two months The Tribune has been running articles by die hard Hindus on its editorial page that the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was an Indian (national-read Hindu) uprising and the Sikhs were a part of this national spirit. Nothing could falsify history than these frightful lies. The Sikhs are a separate race, a religion and a people. The cause of the Indian mutiny was to change the British regime and to bring in a decrepit Mughal dynasty. The Sikhs in history had enough tyranny practiced upon them by the Mughals. Secondly the sepoys of the British army who had revolted were Purbia's or Hindus or Muslims of the Hindu heartland, who composed the fighting force or the auxiliary troops of the British army that annexed the Panjab to British India. So why would the Sikhs rise against the British to see the reinstitution of the Mughal dynasty in coalition with the hated Hindu Purbia ? The fact is that to stop this stupid repetition of the brutal past they rode with the British to crush the mutineers. The Sikhs rightly thought that to be ruled by an alien power was better than to suffer the humiliation under Hindu or Muslim rule. Under the British all three, Hindu, Sikhs and Muslims received an equal and bitter dose of humiliation.

In 1947, when the British split the sub-continent into Muslim and Hindu quarters, the Sikhs were given no choice of a referendum, plebiscite or the must trumpeted UN right to self determination. From the frying pan, in a quirk of history, we have landed into the pot-to be ruled by the Hindus, and a daily litany of abuse by the present editor Mr. H.K. Dua of the Tribune whose motto is- my country-right or wrong and hell with pluralism, diversity and intellectual honesty.

He and his paper deride the Dalits for their demand of affirmative action. India's Dalits lead horrible and degrading lives. They still carry and pick night soil (polite Hindu word for human excreta) with their bare hands. Apartheid is practiced against them as a race. They have very few avenues for education and employment. They still lead lives which are inhuman. The police subjects their women to rape. Their extra-judicial murders at the hands of the police are never enquired into. The Tribune whose views are verkrampte towards them hides the truth and is apathetic towards their amelioration.

Twenty one of us Sikhs, one is a lady have been in prison since 14th, May this year. May and June are the hottest months and the temperatures in our barracks have been going up to 47°C and when the electricity goes off, it is virtually like being in the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta. We are charged with sedition. What is our crime? We held a peaceful and democratic demonstration in front of the statue of the Butcher of the Panjab, Beant Singh who killed thousands of Sikhs in extra-judicial murders. Apart from the Hindus who is the Judas who seeks our blood?-The Tribune. It wrote a nasty editorial and sought the most stringent punishment for protesting against Beant Singh. We have been charged with sedition and could collect the death penalty. Sedition can be against the state. But no says Mr. Dua, the editor of the Tribune and his Hindu countrymen. For them Beant Singh the killer of the Sikhs is the state. Topsy Tervy logic. But then might is right. We Sikhs are a subjugated race, the result of his dishonest British cartography in 1947.

For the last month and a half Mr. Dua has been doing some heavy, full page advertisements, blowing his trumpet, calling his paper the Tribune the biggest and No.1 English daily of our region. Factually it is correct but biggest doesn't necessarily mean the best. India calls itself the biggest democracy in the world. So it may be. But it is lacking in the basic ingredients of a democracy. It has no independent judiciary or press or the rule of law and has signed no UN protocol on Human Rights. Doesn't allow Amnesty International, Asia Watch, International Society of the Red Cross, the UN Rapporteur on Torture and other bodies access into Panjab and Kashmir to monitor human right excesses by the Indian state.

In the same sense the Tribune may call itself the biggest and No.1 paper of the region. Goliath too thought he was the strongest man on earth till David proved him wrong. In our own Sikh scriptures Harnakish thought he could kill his son Pralad, but God willed it otherwise and the meek Pralad triumphed. In World War II the Germans thought they had the biggest battleship, the Bismarck that ever sailed the seas but the British sunk it off the shore of Argentina. Similarly Mr. Dua could pride his Tribune to be the No. 1 paper but without pluralism, allowing dissent and democratic disagreement it is just a monolith of lies, bulk and incredibility. Self praise is a mental delusion. The best judges are the minorities. Until he opens up his hard-line Hindutva paper to divergent views, which may not necessarily be to the liking of the Hindu state, his paper is as destructible as Goliath, Harnakish and the Bismarck.

Ever since Mr. Dua has taken charge of The Tribune, though he maintains his paper's quantity has increased, this paper is suffering from poor quality editing. Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and gender identification howlers have increased. The Tribune has many times referred to Ms. Benazir Bhutto and Britians Foreign Secretary as males. However, we are thankful to Mr. Dua that he has never confused the gender of Ms. Rice, America's Secretary of State!

The full page advertisements in the Tribune tell us that the paper is the people's voice. It may one day well become what Mr. Dua says, only if he makes it more accessible to the Sikhs, the Dalits and other minorities. At the moment it remains the Hindu people's voice. Mr. Dua has had a brilliant innings as India's Ambassador to Denmark. I am sure he'll remember Denmark's most famous writer Hans Christian Anderson and his story-"The Emperor's new Clothes"

Mr. Dua, apart from glorifying India as the biggest democracy is also a great one for touting that India is a secular country. A secular state clearly demarcates itself from any religious activity. However, the Indian state runs all important Hindu temples like Tirupati, Vashno Devi, Puri Temples etc by appointing trustees through the government and IAS officers administer them. The Supreme Court which should have negated the state's control over religious Hindu temples as quietly sat aside, agreeing with the states intervention into controlling Hindu temples. Thus when the state does this primarily for Hindu institutions "leaves itself open to the charge of being a Hindu state", writes Mr. Ranojoy Sen. Thus the Tribune will have to come out of its pretence of not being a Hindu paper. About 95% of its employees are orthodox Hindus. Dalits and minorities get meager employment opportunities in this “voice of the people†paper. Open up Mr. Dua and The Tribune's trustees must know the truth.

Simranjit Singh Mann

President, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

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[Singh, Mahan]

( How the Indian officials, Indian spy-vigilance agencies, and Indian press relate every complaint by the Sikhs and every problem in Punjab to some ‘foreign hands’ and refuse to look at the real cause which the Indians themselves are!!)

Article No. 3

Source: http://www.penmarks.com/

PAKISTAN IN SACHA SAUDA?

S P Singh

Within hours of the Dera Sacha Sauda cult head Ram Rahim indulging in an activity nefarious in its very inception, the whispers in the press room in Chandigarh’s Civil Secretariat had started talking of the role of the ISI. Mature journalists and political scientists now have a theory that whenever Indian intelligence agencies become proactive, they routinely start flinging around the name of the ISI.

Within the next couple of days, a lot of senior journalists, miraculously all of them sitting in Delhi, understood an entire elaborate game plan. Unrelated to each other, and belonging to different newspapers, it was surprising how they could reach the simple, linear narrative of argument, each deducing a clear ISI or Pakistan hand in it.

However, it seems not all journalists gorge themselves on the goodies dished out at informal get-togethers by senior mandarins of the Ministry of External Affairs or Home Affairs.

On Sunday, The Asian Age ensured that the cat was not only out of the bag, but should also be well-identified and tagged. The Asian Age editor M.J.Akbar began his weekly column, Byline, (famous for being brilliant, every time without exception):

"A sectarian simmer in Punjab bursts into violence; in the patterns of that fire, the shadows of an old ghost begin to dance. Slogans of Khalistan are heard, albeit from the margin. But that is sufficient for a very senior officer of the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi to invite some journalists for a briefing. Pakistan, he whispers, is behind all this. The official will not permit his name to be disclosed.

"A killer bomb, activated through a cell phone, goes off during Friday prayers at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, the largest mosque in Asia. Even before the echo of the blast has ebbed, "intelligence" officers of the police are talking to the media, once again on an off-the-record basis. Where do their fingers point? All the usual suspects, please, line up. Pakistan, take your place at the head of the line.

"Media in either country doesn’t waste any time in turning an unattributable whisper into a screeching headline...Why does a senior official of the MEA in Delhi or Islamabad choose the comfort of anonymity when blaming the other? If he has serious evidence of complicity, he should hold a news conference. The Delhi official isn’t blaming his own Prime Minister, so why the secrecy?"

Clearly, now we know why so many of the pen-pushers were pushed to thinking the same thought on the same day in Delhi, hundreds of miles away from the scene of action. And how each one of them had missed the simple fact that every time the CBI case of murder, in which the top sleuthing agency has held that Gurmit Ram Rahim was the prime accused, comes to a decisive stage, the dera head undertakes such tactics to arouse passions.

Last time when there was tangible possibility of the CBI arresting the dera head for questioning, he had spilled thousands of his followers into Chandigarh, blocking traffic for nearly the entire day and putting up a power show which sent the appropriate signals. Now, after the CBI was rapped on April 16 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and asked to file the final report on May 28, a chain of events followed which should have aroused the suspicions of any journalist worth his ink.

Within a week, someone broke a pillar by a roadside in Malwa. Disproportionate protests followed, vehicles were damaged and property vandalised. Then, the amrit-style ceremony was performed. Still it did not make it to the media. Finally, press kits were prepared and sent to all reporters in Bathinda. Desperate, Gurmit Ram Rahim chose to insert the advertisement only after all provocations failed.

He is one man who must be happiest with the reaction of the Sikh community. This is exactly what he wanted. Something to throw a spanner in the works of the CBI lest a final report comes before the court.

Unfortunately, politics is not linear business and many forces join in a situation. That is exactly what seemed to have happened. But the way the media went to town, virtually projecting Sikhs as "violence loving" and the dera head as a man who only wanted to turn his disciples into “insaan”, was a clear example of "communication mistreatment" of the Sikhs.

In such waters do the agencies play.

The moment the Punjab waters turned troublesome, the unknown faces in the MEA start pouring hot cups of tea and presumably more thought inspiring brews in the evening for know-all hacks who next day pen weekly columns sure in the belief that they have got the dope from reliable sources.

Akbar's solution is simple, and brilliant: "Vigilance is the price of liberty, true. But vigilance needs three eyes, only one of which looks across the border. Two must look within."

What Akbar missed mentioning, I am sure because of his innate politeness, is the fact that the blind men of Hindoostan don't even have the use of a construct called 'eyes'. They sit in cozy rooms and decide what they want to see. Then they call over the journalists and share their vision. Once the enemy is 'sighted', they all pat themselves on the back at the achievement. Till of course it is time for some hindsight. Something this nation hardly indulges in.■

May 21, 2007

[Singh, Mahan]

Article No. 4

The article mentions that The Indian Law is applied differently and with clear bias against when it comes to Sikhs.

(Sikhs should keep this in mind when planning any movement.; and should not start fighting among themselves as to who is going to be the 'chaudhary' which only weekens them and the state takes advantage of it and gets away with it. the result usually is that the 'chaudharies are happy that some of the opposing Sikh have lost in the leadership but the end result is that all sikhs end up bearing the loss forever)

Source: http://worldsikhnews.com/index.php?option=...view&id=768

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Sikhs and the law of the land

Written by Bhai Daljit Singh

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A deredar of Sirsa has insulted the Guru of the Sikhs, the history of the Sikhs, the principles and traditions of the Sikhs. More than a month has since passed. Neither the media has presented the view point of the Sikhs honestly nor has the government done justice. The community is being told that law will take its course but the culprit who has insulted an entire community is being provided a level of security equivalent to that available to the Prime Minister. His deras are being guarded with the same zeal. When it comes to committing excesses upon the Sikhs, then where does this course of the law run? Unless these issues are deliberated upon and understood, the ongoing agitation of the Sikhs will not be able to deliver crystallized results.

Under the law of the land, the Sikhs who were displaced from Pakistan during the Partition got lesser land than what they left behind. It was as per the law set down by the government that the Sikhs were not allowed to live at one place. When the Punjabi Suba was carved after thousands of Sikhs went to jail and S. Darshan Singh Pheruman attained martyrdom, lakhs of Punjabis and vast swathes of Punjabi-speaking areas were left outside Punjab. Control of the river waters and the power generation/distribution was snatched away. All of this was the result of the law taking its own course.

In 1978, 13 Sikhs were killed by the nakli Nirankaris at Sri Amritsar. The court at Karnal not only acquitted all the accused in this case but also admonished the police for wrongly implicating the peace-loving citizens (Narakdharis) and thus hurting them. This pronouncement of the court was as per the law of the land. In 1984, on the day of the Shaheedi Gurpurab of the fifth Sikh Guru, under the garb of arresting Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bhindranwale, the Indian Army attacked Sri Darbar Sahib with tanks and artillery, which was presumably as per the law of the land. Mind you, that not a single case was pending against Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in any thana or court. At least not under the law of the land.

The 21st century began for this country with the application of the law of the land when the police presented 133 witnesses against Prof Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar but not one was able to identify him. He, however, has been sentenced to death, of course under the law of the land.

Why does the law go to sleep when it comes to the Sikhs? When the RSS leadership openly terms the Sikhs as part of Hindus, does that not amount to an excess as per the law of the land? The little subtle secret is that even the Constitution of the country does not recognize the independent identity of the Sikhs. When constitutionally the Sikhs do not have an existence of their own, then where is the issue of being victims of excess?

When people immigrate from one country to the other, and the law of the new nation does not recognize them, then they can be termed illegal, aliens, but those who are deprived of their rights in the lad of their birth are not illegal. They are slaves. The illegal, the aliens are expatiated by the governments, thrown into jails but to loot, beat, kill or jail the slaves, you don't need much of the law. For example, even if the Supreme Court has not considered or pronounced that shouting a slogan in favour of Khalistan is any crime, but myself is facing a case of no less a crime than the crime of sedition for ostensibly doing exactly that. The most heinous crime in any country is the crime of sedition, but in this country, one is booked for sedition for desecrating a statue. Sardar Simranjit Singh Mann is facing a case of sedition because he did not like the fact that there should be a statue of Beant Singh who is no icon of human rights. Compared to his actions, the head of the dera who insulted the Sikhs gets Z+ security.

The inference is simple: Because the quom is pushed into slavery, the izzat accorded to a statue is more important than the izzat of the entire quom.

The Constitution and the law of this land is based on the brahamanvaadi philosophy. The basis of this philosophy is caste, idol worship and bharam-jaal. The SIkh gurus replaced caste with the philosophy of ‘Manas ki jaat sabhe aike pehchaanbo’ and ‘Sarbat Da Bhala’. The idol worship and human-worship were replaced with Akal Purakh and Shabad-Guru. The mumbo-jumbo of bharam and mantars was replaced by the construct of the Khalsa's high living and true calling.

The Khalsa made history by following the path of the Gurus and had its own reign. Many do not like the fact that the Gurus were able to negate the Brahamanvaad's basic concepts and equipped the Sikhs with their separate ideology, history and unique identity which enabled them to rule. It is because of this that whenever anyone insults the Saroop, the principles or the Gurus of the Sikhs, he invariably gets a pat from the state or the central governments. The rise of the pakhandis like Narakdharis, Nurmehlias and many others who hurt the Sikh principals and sentiments can only be ascribed to this. The Sirsa creature is only part of this pattern.

One last thing. Can the Sikhs find a way to remain alive as Sikhs? The answer is that they will have to remain conscious and resolute about their history and principles. They must stick to their unique Rehat and conduct, and must ensure that in their land of birth the Punjab, the laws must be in consonance with the philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib and Sikh principles so that the Sikhs can live like Sikhs should. Many Sikhs think that with the Sirsa dera head seeking apology, being arrested or dying, the issue will end. But this is only a miniscule part of the larger issues being faced by the Sikhs. The key problems of the Sikhs will remain as long as they do not become the arbiters of their own existence. They may have to witness more rounds of 1947, 1966, 1978, 1984. The slaves do not breathe easily. They haven’t done so in history. When anyone can get up and insult the Guru of the Sikhs, and the Sikhs start holding dharnas, then be clear about the inference.

Raaj bina na dharma chale hain…

The medieval ages had a proverb – the might is right. The core of this wisdom hasn’t changed in modern times. If Punjab had been ruled as per the Sikh philosophy and principles, then anyone insulting the Gurus would have been extended the same treatment as Chandu was meted by the Guru of Miri-Piri. Then we would not have been spilling out on the roads to seek justice. Then we would not have been facing sedition cases. The ever rising fencing around the Salabatpura dera only signifies our political slavery.

(The author is Senior Vice President of Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar)

[Singh, Mahan]

Article No 5.

1984 Documentry on Sikhs in 5 parts

A good documentary. Gives the background about what happened in 1984

( This documentary is mainly in English, though the first part of 1 is in Punjabi to about the middle. Those who do not understand Punjabi, commentary in English starts after about the middle of the part 1. From there on it is in English in all parts . So do not switch it off after hearing Punjabi in the first part)

Part 1. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tuHssUwDyWY

Part 2.

Part 3. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbyVU8HmZY

Part 4. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J6UF6wBKUe8

Part 5. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wLeKjXjhzH8

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[Singh, Mahan]

Article No. 6

Source: http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/4792/38/

SSF alleges misuse of sedition law against Sikhs in Punjab

GURPREET SINGH MEHAK

Thursday, 05 July 2007

CHANDIGARH: The Sikh Students Federation(SSF) has alleged gross misuse of law of Sedition (Section 124-A of IPC) against 'Sikhs in Punjab on political considerations.

Parmjeet Singh Gazi, President of SSF has claimed that during the days of militancy there was abuse of laws like TADA at a large scale against Sikhs. He said that now these black laws are practically replaced by Charges of Sedition under Section 124A of IPC (1860). He alleged both SAD-BJP and Congress governments are frequent in framing false charges of sedition against Sikh leaders. He claimed that this process is used like a multi-edged weapon against Sikhs.

He said that one hand Sikhs leaders are put behind the bars and are kept away from public issues, on the other hand continuous charges of sedition are defaming the Sikh Nation and are an attack on our credibility world wide. Giving facts in support of his argument Gazi has that Congress government framed charges of sedition against Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu for speaking in favor of farmers of Barnala district last year; now charges of sedition are framed against him in Fatehgarh Sahib district for peacefully participating in a march. He said since last 4-5 years charges of sedition are registered against Sikhs on 6th June at Sri Amritsar every year.

He said that recently a charge of 7/51 against SAD(Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann has been converted into sedition at Jalandhar. He said that a case of Sedition is registered against Sikhs after success of Khalsa March at Talwandi Sabo on 24 June. Moreover charges of sedition against Sikhs are more frequent in Punjab than other residents of other states. All these are clear-cut instances of misuse of law.

Gazi said that all freedom-lovers, Human rights activists and Social organizations should speak up against this discriminatory trend. He said that Sikhs belonging to legal profession should try all alternatives with in Indian System to prevent this misuse of law and legal process and they should take up the matter at international level as well

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[Singh, Mahan]

Article No. 7

Source: http://www.hindu.com/op/2007/07/08/stories...70853271400.htm

Fake encounters and the Indian state

K.S. DHILLON

There is little legitimacy for the kind of killings police and other security forces have been resorting to lately

All the gory details of the calculated murders of Sohrabbudin Sheikh, his wife Kausarbi and a police informer late last year in a fake encounter near Ahmedabad by a police party, comprising, among others, three IPS officers, are now in the public domain. While the shock and outrage felt by a concerned civil society at the gruesome event is understandable, the extent of support and approbation that Vanzara and his co-accused have received from several quarters, including so me politicians, is somewhat difficult to readily accept.

Not that it is an altogether new development. Only a few years ago, similar approbatory affirmations greeted the Punjab police for their brutal handling of Sikh militancy. Indeed the Punjab police could not have employed the shockingly repressive measures in the centrally-ruled State unless its leadership was sure of full state backing.

A large segment of Indian society too approved of its tactics, despite its deeply tainted operational record of kidnappings, disappearances, extortions and brutal killings, which left thousands of Sikhs traumatised and disabled for life.

In fact, the Punjab police are believed to have refined the art and science of fake encounters to near perfection, right up to ferrying alleged terrorists from far off places in vehicles with fictitious number plates to home ground and then bumping them off.

If Vanzara and other such encounter specialists are found to have accumulated assets worth several crores, one has only to look around Chandigarh and its satellite towns to marvel at the mansions, farmhouses and holiday resorts that cropped up in the aftermath of Punjab militancy. Yet those nightmarish happenings in Punjab remain shrouded in a conspiracy of silence for obvious reasons, although they have become a veritable model for anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism strategies, spawning a culture of state terrorism and hard policing all over the country.

Dangerous trend

This is obviously a deeply flawed and dangerous trend. For, Indian law does not sanction the use of deadly force against alleged criminals of whatever category except when a member of the public is under an imminent threat of loss of life or serious injury from a criminal act and there is no other means available to the police to save his life.

This right of private defence is also available to a member of a police or security organisation, placed in a similar situation. Even then the law requires that adequate warning is given before using deadly force to neutralise the threat. There is thus little legitimacy or justification for the kind of encounter killings the police and other security forces have been resorting to lately all over the country.

Even then, cold-blooded acts of murder to deal with dacoit gangs, crime mafias, extremists and terrorists and faking the misdeeds as encounters have lately become a much-favoured strategy with South Asian police forces as our legal and judicial architecture remains rooted in mid-nineteenth century concepts and enactments and is frequently found wanting in delivering quick and effectual justice to cope with the current upsurge in militant and extremist violence.

What is more, South Asian political and bureaucratic establishments are not averse to promoting the belief that encounters, fake or otherwise, are an acceptable mode of combating terrorism, militancy, mafia crimes and other such organised and ruthless criminal activity. Encounter killings have, thus, not only acquired substantial acceptability among many otherwise fairly discerning members of our civil society, the so-called encounter experts are also greatly lionised in films and other media.

Most military and security top brass openly and many politicians secretly prescribe the same treatment for the growing Maoist insurgency. In the face of such demonstrated state support for extra judicial killings, is it any wonder that more and more policemen, including IPS officers, are inclined to short-circuit the due process and win medals and accolades in the bargain?

Unless substantive and sustainable corrective measures are taken urgently, the ability of our police to meet the myriad emerging challenges in a lawful manner will continue to deteriorate, leading soon to a collapse of the rule of law and civilised governance that form the bedrock of a modern, democratic and responsive polity. Are we prepared for that to happen?

(The writer is a former Director General of Police, Punjab)

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

[Singh, Mahan]

Article # 8

(S. Simranjit Singh Mann’s letter from jail Date: July 11, 2007)

Central Jail,

Ludhiana,

July 11th, 2007.

Thoughts from Jail

Vendetta, torture, fake encounters and lies.

Twenty one of us Sikhs have been in jail since 14th, May 2007, when we demonstrated peacefully before the statue of the Butcher of the Panjab, Beant Singh, who as Panjab’s Chief Minister, sent thousands of young Sikhs to their deaths in extra-judicial murders, which the Indian government and the Judiciary has still not taken stock of or cognizance.

Being in jail for almost two months now on charges of sedition, with my fellow protesters, the Sessions Court in Jullundar and now the Panjab and Haryana High Court denying us bail and believing that protesting before the Butcher of the Panjab’s statue is sedition, we are all comfortably entrenched for a long spell in prison.

I have come to learn after my long stays in prison that the period spent here is not a waste. If one keeps one’s gog shut, eyes and ears open, it is a place of learning. One doesn’t get the information of all what goes in the world. Information in the sense how things happen, the causes, the ways and their ultimate end.

I knew for instance of opium and heroin, its production and manufacture in Afghanistan but the route it took through the Panjab and Kashmir to Delhi and onto San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, New York and other destination was unknown to me.

I knew that the Panjab Police had surplus AK 47 and 56 rifles which were not entered in the stock registers, but I didn’t know that since militancy ended, IPS and Panjab Police officers were selling them in UP and Behar to the Underground mafia and now running scared lest there was an inquiry and they were asked to account for them, and match them with the list, wherever it lay in the vaults of the Government of India or with Panjab’s CID.

What I am going to write about today is the torture and humiliation by the Panjab Police and the Vigilance Bureau that the suspects in the Ludhiana City Centre case have suffered. All the suspects in this case, save Bharatinder Singh Chahal, who only came for one night, have been in jail with me. All of them have reported that they suffered torture and humiliation at the hands of Panjab Police and the Vigilance Bureau, though by UN Convention, Torture is banned and the UN has a Rapporteur on Torture, who like Amnesty International, Asia Watch, International Society of the Red Cross and other human rights bodies are not allowed as per the Indian Government’s edict to enter the Panjab. Some Members of Parliament from Great Britain who are vocal on Human Rights are also banned.

Since 2004 my passport stands impounded by the state as I wanted to appear before the Major Commission in Canada that is probing the unfortunate Kanishka flight disaster of Air India, in which about three Indian diplomats who were to take that flight cancelled their travel schedule at the eleventh hour, obviously knowing and apprehensive of the appending disaster. The Major Commission of enquiry would not do justice if it didn’t hear what the warped Doon School educated Rajiv Gandhi and his cronies were doing at that particular time. And why did KPS Gill the Director General of Police bump off Talwinder Singh Parmar in a fake encounter immediately after his capture when the Royal Canadian Montréal Police and Canada’s intelligence thought that Parmar held a fund of information? The Indian state can impound my passport and keep me behind bars but eventually truth will triumph as it always does. Good prevails over evil.

Now back to the City Centre investigation. As I said some of the tortured officials have been in this jail as also the multi-millionaire Chetan Gupta. Two senior Panjab engineers were arrested by the Vigilance Bureau on 20.4.2007 and it is reported that the senior officer of the Vigilance Bureau Kamaljit Singh Sandhu and Surjit Singh Grewal tortured them both in the most brutal, mean and humiliating manner. They were both stripped naked and their legs were stretched outwards as in the splits done by a ballerina. Both Kamaljit Singh and Surjit Singh Grewal used intemperate and abusive language, unbecoming of high ranking officers. To be accurate they called them “bhen chods”, meaning fuckers of their respective sisters. They were slapped as well. They were made to sign on blank papers. On 21st, April 2007 they were again stripped naked by these very officers and they were given electric shocks on the genitals and the temples on their foreheads. They were shown to the doctors but there is no record with them. They were given no medicine during their detention. One of them reported that his tiffen carrying meals from his home used to come to the place of his detention and the sentry on duty took Rs 300/- every time he allowed the tiffen but the detainee still never received or got to eat the meal. This prisoner (that is me) noted their gait, their poise and demeanour. Nothing was normal. They were ashamed to match their eyes when speaking with anyone. They remained aloof. They were not gregarious as other prisoners and their faces showed both mental and physical agony.

Bharatinder Singh Chahal was here in this prison for only a night. He was tortured and humiliated in a similar way but I couldn’t get to know which police officers tortured him. I was told reliably that when under extreme physical torture he was videotaped and his shrieks were passed on to Sukhbir Singh on the mobile phone. The fact that the new BJP-Badal government members get sadistic pleasure in seeking their opponents being tortured by the police was corroborated by another source who told me that a Dalit Sikh who did not vote for Nirmal Singh Kahlon, now the Speaker of the Panjab Legislative Assembly was brutally tortured by a Station House Officer and the shrieks of pain coming out of the Dalit Sikh were relayed by the SHO on a mobile phone to the son of the Hon’ble Speaker of the House. I do have the name of the victim and the police officer who tortured this unfortunate poor Sikh.

Chetan Gupta, the fat catch and on whom the Panjab Government is banking and quoting to the High Court and Supreme Court as the mine of information, was here in jail for a long while too. He’s a businessman and to be frank does investment. But the much touted pen drive the Vigilance Bureau says it has got from him and the names on it is really a catalogue of who’s who in Indian society and the knots of corruption its tied into. It doesn’t have the names of the Patiala family only but a list of officers in the Cabinet Secretary and its various intelligence wings, the name of the Scandia’s, the Rajasthan Chief Ministers kin and cronies, relatives of the Advani’s, the Majathia’s etc. It would explode the lid off India’s coy, soft and suave gentry and its self-pronounced honesty and integrity. Notoriously they all bank in Zurich.

Now here in prison I learn that middlemen investors are keeping their ears cocked and eyes open to the $ 10 billion India’s fighter plane deal, a chance that won’t come for years to the corrupt Indian politician and bureaucrat. No share for the foot soldier or the pilot. Their’s will always be to do and die!

I don’t think the Badal’s are interested in any anti-corruption drive. All they want to do is tell the world that they are not the only ones who practice corruption, graft, nepotism, cheating and looting. Had they been interested in taking the lid off corruption they would have gone about it with a more profession manner like entrusting the job to better skilled officers with unchallengeable reputation of being experts and not officers like Sumed Saini, Director Vigilance, who is booked by the C.B.I. for murder, or Kamaljit Singh Sandhu who has killed in an inhuman manner and extra judicially a Panjab Agriculture University professor and husband of Bibi Rajinder Kaur Bulara who was elected with me to Parliament in 1989. Sandhu has been indicted in the Tiwari report too who along with Swarn Singh Ghotna, Senior Superintendent of Police tortured, cut into pieces the Jathedar of the Akal Takhat Gurdev Singh Koenkē and threw the limbs and pieces of his body into the flowing waters of the River Sutlej. Then there is Surjit Singh Grewal who is notoriously infamous for killing Sikhs in a cruel manner in extra judicial murders. What is worse is that these sadistic, brutal and inhuman officers are receiving orders from a new crop of politician’s son’s who are equally sadistic and derive pleasure in inflicting pain and mental agony on their opponents.

I am happy though, that the Panjab and Haryana High Court Judges who turned a Nelson’s eye to torture and illegal detentions by the Panjab Police are taking note of these inhuman and barbaric acts but not cognizance yet. Till now the Judges of the High Court have had a difficult relationship with the ground realty and the truth. Judges Mehtab Singh Gill and Uma Nath Singh deserve the gratitude of all people who despise torture and stand by the rule of law. If the Advocate General of the Panjab Hardev Singh Mattewal has any morality and self respected he should honourably resign for lying and denying torture by the Panjab Police and Vigilance Bureau before the High Court and the Supreme Court. Will he deny these well researched and documented charges?

The engines of this vendetta, torture and humiliation drive are Big Dad Badal, his wife Mata Surinder Kaur, their son Sukbir Singh, his saala Vikramjit Singh and their Media Adviser, the Arya Samajist ideologue Harcharan Bains. They have, together silenced the opposition Congress party, whose three main leaders Ms. Bhattal, Mr. Dullo, and Mr. Amrinder Singh, are under threat of open criminal cases for corrupt practices in the last Congress regime being started against them. Timidly they have taken the vows of silence. No one speaks of torture or police brutality in the Panjab legislature or the Union Parliament.

Simranjit Singh Mann,

President, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

[Singh, Mahan]

Article No. 9

This article is another letter (dated July 15, 2007) written by S. Simranjit Singh Mann from the Ludhiana Central Jail. It again describes the general state of affairs in Punjab and the attitude of Police and Judiciary in Punjab.

Source: http://www.akalidalamritsar.com/punjab/Jul...il_20070717.htm

Dachaū Central Jail,

Ludhiana,

15.7.2007

Thought’s in Jail.

Judicial Partisanship and Injustice to Minorities.

All persons who derive their thoughts and thinking from reason must know that in a state which calls itself the biggest democracy in the world, a peaceful demonstration before a statue should not attract any penal action. But as the world knows when on 14th May 2007, twenty one of us Sikh patriots of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) demonstrated before the statue of Beant Singh, the Butcher of the Panjab, who during his period of Chief Ministership was responsible for the extra-judicial murders of more than 20,000 Sikhs, in addition to an equal member of disappearances of Sikhs, who have not surfaced since then and must be presumed to have been killed by illegal means and methods, employed by the then Military Governor’s Surinder Nath and Lt. Gen Chibber and police officers KPS Gill, S.S. Virk, Mohammad Izhar Alam, Sumed Saini, Ajit Singh Sandhu, Swarn Singh Ghotna, Harinder Singh, Kawaljit Singh Sandhu, Surjit Singh Grewal. R.P Singh, Paramraj Singh, D.R. Bhatti etc.

Their like, nurtured by Beant Singh and these Governor’s, was a time, when no Sikh could call his home a castle as these butchers searched and carried away men, women and children without judicial warrants of arrest and search. Those who were kidnapped or abducted by the Panjab Police, the Indian army and Parliamentary forces had no access to the writ of hebeaus corpus, as the district judiciary and the Panjab and Haryana High Court had become dumb and a part of the tyrannical system unleashed by the Indian state after and a little before the infamous Operation Bluestar.

Similarly today the judicial system at the district and High Court level is packed with Judge’s who think that peaceful protesters before a tyrant’s statue of Beant Singh should be kept in jail, by hook or by crook. Twenty one of us, of which one is an intrepid Sikh lady Gurdeep Kaur Chattha have been lodged in Ludhiana Central Jail. We have no recourse to the Indian constitution or any of its clauses. Amarinder Singh, the Ex-Chief Minister, his minister Jagjit Singh, his Media Adviser Bharatinder Singh Chahal and others accused for committing crimes huge corruption were given immediate anticipatory bails by the Panjab and Haryana High Court. Next the self anointed Godman of Sirsa, who has set the whole of North India ablaze with his acts and writings of blasphemy and sacrilege against the Sikh religion, got immediate anticipatory bail from the Panjab and Haryana High Court. In fact Justice Mital who passed this bail order in the High Court pleaded the case of the Godman, and tried to convince the public that he had committed no acts of blasphemy or sacrilege. From a Judge he became the Godman’s pleader! Such is the difference between people who commit economic and sacrilegious crimes and those who defy an arrogant Hindu state.

The Indian press, which claims it is secular and bats for democracy, like the High Court has followed a one sided, partisan line on the peaceful protest before Beant Singh’s statue. We have all put in an appeal to the Sessions Judge, Jullundar, Mr. Sansi that as the Badal-BJP government in the Panjab has made out a case of sedition under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code against the 21 of us for a protest against a statue, such a case is not viable because sedition can be committed against the state and not a statue. Moreover, there are no public witnesses cited against us by the Police though Jullundar city has a population of over 8 lakh people. Couldn’t the government find even one witness amongst this big population? Then the witnesses the government has put up against us are three police officers. As per section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act a statement by a police officer is inadmissible before any court of law. Then where is there a criminal case against us and why are the Courts and the Indian press keeping their silence? The Sessions Judge turned down our plea for bail but privately said the administration had brought too much pressure upon him.

The fact is that the majority Hindu state of India thinks, believes and worships Beant Singh as a Hindu deity, a Godess Durga that smites its enemies and protects the Hindu faith from all others, whether Christian, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism or the Dalits. Hinduism through the ages has expelled Buddhism from its native soil India, dominated Jainism and declared it a part of the Hindu faith, Islam in 1947 was given a separate country East and West Pakistan, Christians are being tormented, their Churches raised to the ground, priests murdered and nuns raped and the Sikhs have not been allowed to settle down since 1947. They were made the biggest victims of ethnic cleansing in history in 1947 and to this day for their political, economic, religious and social rights they have been kept in a heightened trauma of agitation and finally made the victims of genocide in 1984, which continues without redressal either by the international community, the UN or rhetoric of President Bush in his first inaugural address or the 1997 manifesto of Britain’s Labour party headed by the popular leader Tony Blair, that violations of human rights, suffering, lack of democratic rights, free voice and subjugation of any peoples will be heard in Washington DC by Mr. Bush and in London by Mr. Blair.

On 7th, June 07 after a long delay, the case of us 21 Sikh accused for sedition was put into the Panjab and Haryana High Court for bail. Justice Surya Kunt, a die hard Hindu judge heard our case. The case was simple that sedition couldn’t be committed for a demonstration before a statue and there were no public witnesses. The judge knowing that we had a correct and infallible judicial argument wanted to derive the usual sadistic pleasure in keeping us detained for a period he would not be asked any questions or challenged. So he gave the state a notice to 7th, of August 07 to give its side of the argument. As I have said for worse crimes the Hindu judges give blanket anticipatory bails but in this case the longer Judge Kunt could keep us in jail- the better.

The renowned human right jurist Mr. Ranjan Lakhanpal while giving an interview to the Spokesman dated 14th July 07 has said that the judiciary has corrupted itself and Judges want to please the government of the day by giving such facile and meaningless judgments so that after they retire the government picks them out for appointment to one Commission or the other. No practicing lawyer has given such a damaging statement against senior judges. Lawyers under normal circumstances are scared lest they be hauled up far contempt of court for which they may suffer six months imprisonment. Why doesn’t Judge Kunt haul up Mr. Lakhanpal? Because Mr. Lakhanpal is an honest and upright advocate, who speaks with authority and fearlessness. Justice Kunt and others know they have many skeletons in their cupboard which are best kept safeguarded by not disturbing a hornets nest, that is Mr. Lakhanpal. Mr. Lakhanpal’s father died in Tehar Jail as he opposed the Emergency of the ruthless Premier of the day Indira Gandhi. The late Beant Singh had Mr. Lakhanpal’s young son murdered.

Indian institutions are crumbling by the day. Here we are talking of the corrupt and communal character of the higher Indian judiciary and today (15.7.2007) comes the news from the Congo that the Indian army contingent posted there for UN peacekeeping has accepted bribes in gold from the camp that they are meant to keep at peace.

Life in the Panjab with the Badal-BJP regime which is taking vindictive action through the police and other government agencies, against its opponents is becoming rather dangerous. From my sources in the government I have learnt that Bharatinder Singh Chahal the former Media Adviser and Dimpa a former MLA and various supporters of his, all of whom are in judicial or police custody, through torture or extreme mental harassment will die in police or judicial custody. The Chief of the Vigilance Bureau Mr. Saini is a desperate man and his hands are imbrued with blood of several innocent Sikhs and he’s putting abundant pressure on his already willing subordinates to increase mental and physical torture on Mr. Badal’s opponents.

As far as we Sikhs are concerned the blasphemous Godman of Sirsa has the whole Hindu nation behind his back because he has offended the Sikhs. The Hindu’s as a whole support Mr. Badal’s action of framing us 21 Sikhs in a sedition case for a protest before Beant Singh’s statue. The murderer is their national hero. So anyone under the present Hindu mood who offends the Sikh is their champion. Anyone opposed to the Sirsa Godman and Beant Singh, therefore must face the consequences of a vindictive Hindu state.

If injustice keeps being piled on the Sikh’s and minorities with impunity, the day is not far when Sikhs will begin to ask for non-Hindu judges to hear their cases and appeals for fair and just judicial pronouncements. The Hindu state is following a very short sited policy and only cutting its nose to spite its face by committing atrocities and injustice on the Sikh peoples and other minorities.

Simranjit Singh Mann,

President, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

[Singh, Mahan]

Article No. 9

Source: http://worldsikhnews.com/index.php?option=...6&Itemid=29

KHALSA SWAHA

Written by Harjot Singh

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Badal chose Navjot Sidhu to represent Sikhs’ holy city Amritsar in Lok Sabha. When Sidhu last week donned a dhoti, wore a janeyu and performed havan, Sikhs raised a ruckus. But isn’t he only following the secular president of Akali Dal who performs aarti, bows before Namdhari gurus and hails Lord Parshuram when Sikh Diaspora is fighting a battle to stress its unique identity?

Navjot Singh Sidhu. The man whom Akali Dal projects as a youth icon and who represents the Lok Sabha constituency Amritsar where the holiest of the Sikh shrines, the Sri Harimandir Sahib, and the topmost temporal seat of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht, is situated, is proud to be wearing a “janju” or “Janeyu”, the ritualistic Hindu thread which Guru Nanak discarded and so has every Sikh down the centuries. Navjot Singh Sidhu, known for cracking and loudly laughing at anti-minority jokes and jokes aimed at making fun of women or with openly sexual overtones and double entendre, was last week seen performing havan with media splashing his photographs all over.

Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal is known to be too fond of Sidhu and the MP is a personal friend of Badal’s son and currently the virtual party supremo Sukhbir Singh Badal, himself an MP and first non-baptized acting president of the Akali Dal.

Several Sikh organizations have taken strong exception to Sidhu’s antics and some have even decided to approach the SGPC and the Akal Takht over the matter. Sikh radical organisation Dal Khalsa has demanded that that the Akal Takht award exemplary punishment to Sidhu and has also submitted a complaint at the Akal Takht secretariat blaming Sidhu for violating Sikhs’ ‘rehat maryada’ (code of conduct).

Satnam Singh, president of the Dal Khalsa, said on Saturday that Sidhu performed havan at Baba Dayal Mandir on July 17 which was objected to by Sikh organisations including Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Sidhu was sporting a turban as he performed the havan, wearing a dhoti. The Dal Khalsa and the Akali Dal (Amritsar) have termed Sidhu a disgrace for the community. Even earlier, in February this year, the cricketer-turned-motormouth TV celebrity Sidhu, had performed a havan at home before launching his bid for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat which he won defeating Surinder Singla, the former Punjab Finance Minister. At that time, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee led by Sarna brothers, had pleaded before the Akal Takht demanding action against him. But nothing was heard of that complaint later.

But then, Sidhu’s presence at the havan, even though it has irked many Sikh organisations, should be seen in the context of the fact that the man is a sworn member and MP of a party which is an avowed Hindu right wing nationalist party and reports to the RSS, from which it also draws political sustenance and ideological roots.

What should worry the panthic lobby is the fact that photographs of Parkash Singh Badal himself performing havan and aarti make it to Punjab newspapers too often without causing any known agony to the SGPC or the Sikh clergy. As for the Akali Dal, it has now stated on oath before the Election Commission of India that it is not a panthic party and is only a secular political party.

It has even amended its own Constitution to that effect, the ECI has been told. (For a fuller story of this aspect, please see WSN issue dated July 18-24, 2007 or www.worldsikhnews.com). Badal’s wife Surinder Kaur Badal is known for visiting Noormehal’s self-styled godman Baba Ashutosh, and photographs of her sitting before this baba are staple media stuff now.

Ashutosh’s Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan has been involved in bloody skirmishes with Sikhs and the Shiromani Khalsa Panchayat had led a strong movement against it. As Chief Minister, it is all the more important for Badal and his Akalis to portray themselves as secular, or rather to debunk their Sikh credentials. Not a single Akali leader wants to be known as the Khalsa. Not a single SGPC member of the Akali Dal wants to be tagged as such. So Badal regularly lands up at the dera functions, calls the Namdhari’s guru as Satguru, sets up a university chair in his name (that too at the university set up in the name of Guru Nanak, allocates funds worth lakhs to the Namdhari Darbar, attends Ram Navmi celebrations where he performs the aarti, and extolls Lord Parshuram as the man whom the sangat should learn from. Has Badal ever thought of setting up a chair in the name of Sant Bhindranwale?

During the last Akali regime, after reports that the then minister Sucha Singh Langah has carried out 500 paths of Ramayana, two things happened: Sucha Singh Langah never denied it, in fact he only confirmed it; and the Sikh clergy took no action, neither did the SGPC. It is a different matter that the Akal Takht keeps receiving regular complaints about small time ragis and granthis doing something perceived anti-Sikh and regularly pronounces tankhah. Badal’s men have little to fear on this score.

The Badal’s government latest move of virtually gifting away acres of prime land to the Radha Soami dera only fits into the pattern. Add to it a Murari Bapu holding Ram Katha at Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s samadhi, Ashutosh Noormehlia holding his voodoo-salvation darbars, Pyara Bhaniarawala remaining unpunished…

At a time when the identity question is troubling the Sikh community and Sikhs are fending off many a hate crime which they suffer because of mistaken identity, and are fighting legal fights to keep their religious symbols at places of work, such actions of people like Badal and Sidhu only confuse the rest of the world about the claims of uniqueness bandied about by the Sikhs.

“Nyarapan” has been the core of the Sikh identity issue, and all these fights represent the Sikh community’s continuous efforts to engage with the issue of identity. In India, the Sikhs are tired of proclaiming that they are not Hindus. In the US and in many parts of Europe, they are working overtime to underline that they are not Muslims or Jihadis. But agendas like that of the Badals’ confuse the entire issue of identity. Now, Sidhu has added his share to this confusion.

At a time when there is no end to those who question the power, privileges and jurisdiction of the Akal Takht every single day, such passive role of the temporal seat will bring no glory to it.