Pritpal Singh & Harjinder Singh on Sikh Channel & You Tube

Harjinder Singh & Pritpal Singh in Ealing the Sikh Channel Studio

Underneath the link to the Sikh Channel programme with Pritpal Singh and Harjinder Singh.

An inspirational chat show with Dutch Sikh Harjinder Singh. Find out why he embraced Sikhism. We take about his past experiences, his spiritual journey and his contributions to the wider society.

http://youtu.be/4Mi9Lw0463c

Find out why a Dutchman, Cornelis Heule, became Harjinder Singh

Cornelis Harjinder Singh Heule was born in 1947 in Roermond in the Netherlands as Cornelis Heule. He is known as Harjinder Singh, names given to him when he became an initiated Sikh in 1996.

He followed primary school in his home town and the first half of his secondary in Heerlen. Harjinder Singh then moved to Amstelveen (near Amsterdam) where he finished secondary school.

Harjinder went to University in Amsterdam, but he got caught up in the student movement. He worked for about 25 years in the travel industry, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and in Dublin, Ireland. In 1996 Harjinder Singh went to Panjab, India where he stayed for four years.

In the first 2½ years of his stay in Panjab he studied Sikhí and its history, and made himself useful in the Harmandar Sahib complex in Amritsar. The last 1½ year in Panjab he stayed mostly in Chandigarh, where he did voluntary work (seva) for the Institute of Sikh Studies.

In 2000 he came to West London, UK where he lived until June 2010. He did not have a ‘job’ but was involved in a number of different organisations as a volunteer and as ‘Faith and Cultural Diversity consultant’.

Harjinder Singh was a member of the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy team at Heathrow Airport and at Richmond upon Thames College and was involved in a number of Sikh lobby groups and advisory groups to the Police. Mr Singh did diversity training for the Slough REC, and was the National Development Officer of Faith & Belief in Further Education.

On June 17 2010 Harjinder Singh moved to Sint Truiden in the Dutch speaking Belgian province of Limburg, where he is trying to make himself useful by using his language skills. Harjinder Singh at present is assisting Sikh families from Afghanistan with their Asylum case in Belgium. He is providing all necessary assistance to one Afghan Sikh family in particular, who are threatened with deportation to Kabul, Afghanistan.

He does still write his column (The Man In Blue).

He is sixty-five, happy and busy doing seva for the Panth.

Pritpal Singh, the Dutch Sikh

The Tribune – Cops claim clues on jailbreak bid; Say jailed terrorists made ISD calls

Aman Sood, Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 30. Preliminary investigations into the recovery of mobiles and SIM cards from inmates of the high-security Nabha Jail corroborate the police theory that some hardcore terrorists were plotting to escape.

The role of certain police officers and jail employees in the conspiracy is under the scanner.

Police IT experts along with officials of the intelligence wing are trying to trace the Internet Protocol (IP) address used by the inmates through their mobile phones.

Call details have been traced to some European countries and some numbers in Asia.

Sources confirmed that the cyber crime wing of the department had found that the SIM cards recovered from the prison had been used to explore the internet and make calls in India and abroad.

“We will probe the IP addresses used and try to ascertain the email IDs used through the SIM cards,” the sources said.

Further, the police is trying to locate the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) position of the recovered phones.

At least 36 hardcore criminals are lodged in the Nabha Jail. Intelligence inputs had been suggesting since June that these prisoners were planning to escape.

“We have clues that they were planning a jailbreak. Whatever we have recovered so far seems just a tip of the iceberg”, said Patiala Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) LK Yadav.

Senior police officers are contemplating writing to the Jails Department to ensure more security checks for visitors and hasten work on installing jammers.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120831/punjab.htm#6

The Tribune – In debt trap, farmers forced to sell their tractors, equipment

Ravi Dhaliwal, Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, August 30. With agriculture becoming economically unviable for scores of farmers having small and marginal landholdings, they are forced to sell their moveable property, including tractors and farm equipment, to meet their family obligations.

Farmers admit they visit Moga and Talwandi Sabo tractors mandis to mortgage their vehicles to arrange money for wedding or education of their children, construction of house etc.

Amarbir Singh Gill, an agriculturist, said: “These tractor markets have become a case study for the dying farm culture in this once prosperous agrarian state”.

Experts say high costs of farm inputs and “unfriendly” government polices are the main factors that drive farmers to penury.

“The successive state governments have not done anything to provide us adequate electricity. We have to buy diesel to run tractors, submersible motors, harvesting machines etc. In the last two years, prices of inputs have increased manifold. I have sold more than half of my four acres of land and now I have to dispose of my tractor,” said Angrej Singh, a local farmer.

Tejinder Singh, a marginal farmer, said: “I have no money for my daughter’s wedding. I owe huge money to private financiers. I have decided to buy a tractor on loan and then sell it and get some cash”.

While he had to pay the bank instalments, he would get a lump sum amount, he said. But little does he realise that this act of his will lead him to debt trap. The new tractor will cost him Rs 5 lakh plus 9 per cent bank interest. He will get Rs 3.5 lakh for it, the market rate for hypothecated tractors. But for him, Tejwinder said he had no alternative.

Gurmeet Dala, another farmer, said: “There are some farmers who go to Malwa region to sell their high-capacity tractors and buy smaller ones. This suggests that small farmers are incurring losses. The only ones who can afford the rising cost of agriculture are big farmers having more than 50 acres of land.”

Some farmers are even doing menial jobs like working as casual labourers to sustain their families, he added.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120831/punjab.htm#4

The Asian Age – Mulayam bid to form non-UPA, non-NDA front

Asian Age Correspondent

Friday 31 August 2012. After watching the continued parliamentary logjam from the sidelines, Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday brought together a few non-Congress and non-BJP parties to seek a judicial probe into “Coalgate” and resumption of proceedings in both Houses of Parliament.

This is likely to put pressure on the BJP, which has so far paralysed Parliament over the CAG’s report on coal block allocations, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mr Yadav, joining hands with the CPI, CPI(M) and the Telugu Desam, told reporters outside Parliament on Thursday that these parties will stage a sit-in to protest against disruption of the proceedings of Parliament. Mr Yadav also demanded that the allegations into the allocation of coal blocks be inquired into by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.

Further, in a move which can isolate the Opposition BJP, the Left leaders have claimed that about eight political parties, including the BJD and AIADMK, might join hands with them to support their cause. The move is also being seen as an attempt to forge a front of non-Congress and non-BJP parties with an eye towards the next general election. The regional parties, except for issuing statements that they wanted discussion in Parliament on the “Coalgate” controversy, have by and large been inactive so far, but now there appear to be hectic parleys taking place among various leaders.

“We have decided that we will sit on a protest against ‘Coalgate’ at 10 am on Friday in front of Parliament House. We want that Parliament should function and that the accused in ‘Coalgate’ be punished,” said Mr Yadav, who added that the attempt was to unite non-NDA, non-UPA parties to distinguish themselves from both the BJP and the Congress.

The CPI(M) floor leader in the Lok Sabha, Mr Basudeb Acharia, endorsed Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s stand. He said: “The Congress and the BJP are working hand-in-glove. The allotment of coal blocks should be cancelled.” Mr Acharia also said that he had already spoken to leaders of both the BJD and AIADMK in this regard. Members from the Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party would also join them, he added.

http://www.asianage.com/india/mulayam-bid-form-non-upa-non-nda-front-113

Den Haag, HTM, Tram 17 from Waldeck Pyrmontkade to Gravenstraat, 28 June 2012

I walked the full length of the route of Tram 17 from Station Holland Spoor to the Statenkwartier, but went about it in a funny way. On 28 June I walked from Waldeck Pyrmontkade/Laan van Meerdervoort to Gravenstraat. The next day I walked from Jacob Catsstraat via Holland Spoor and Centraal Station to Gravenstraat, then took the tram to Waldeck Pyrmontkade and from there walked to Statenkwartier.

Bilderdijkstraat, Tram 17 to Wateringen

Torenstraat, Tram 17 to Statenkwartier

Kerkplein. Tram 17
There is a full loop around the Grote Kerk (Kerk=Church)

Kerkplein. Tram 17
There is a full loop around the Grote Kerk (Kerk=Church)

Gravenstraat, Tram 17
Almost at the end of this stage of our walk

  To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/

More Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

Special to the Tribune – UK cancels varsity licence, Indian students in trouble

Shyam Bhatia in London

Friday 31 August. Indians are among the foreign students facing an uncertain future, including possible deportation, following the British Government’s decision to strip the London Metropolitan University’s (LMU) right to sponsor visas.

Both current and future students are in a state of limbo after the UK Border Agency (UKBA) revoked the university’s ‘Highly Trusted Status’ (HTS), meaning it will no longer be allowed to authorise visas, leaving even enrolled foreign students uncertain about whether they will be able to complete their courses.

Even worse, as many as 2,000 foreign students face deportation unless they find some other approved university or college that is prepared to sponsor them.

“The implications of the revocation are hugely significant and far-reaching, and the university has already started to deal with these” says a statement issued by the university, one of the largest in London.

“It will be working very closely with the UK Border Agency, Higher Education Funding Council for England, National Voice of Students (NUS) and its own Students’ Union. Our absolute priority is our students, both current and prospective, and the university will meet all its obligations to them,” the statement said.

The Border Agency is concerned that some students at this particular university have remained in the UK without valid visas and others have used their visas by way of getting into the country as illegal immigrants. London Metropolitan has also been criticised for failing to adequately test both the English language and general academic ability of its foreign students.

Indians currently represent about 10 per cent, or 350 students, of the foreign student body represented at the two central London campuses of the university.

LMU vice-chancellor Malcolm Gillies has denied his university was a threat to immigration control. Responding to the British Home Office claims that the university’s licence was being revoked “due to a failure to comply with their sponsor duties and the resulting threat to immigration control,” he said, “The university is extremely disappointed with this news. It comes after six weeks of suspension during which the university has done everything it could do to demonstrate that the current state of its operations warrants continuing HTS (highly trusted sponsor) status and that a new management has worked to remedy past weaknesses.”

Students confused, in panic

Amitabh Das, a first year student from Kolkata studying for a degree in public relations, told The Tribune, “Definitely, we Indian students will be affected. It’s very sad that the university may not be there for us to continue and we may have to go back if the university’s sponsorship licence is taken away. I am a 20-year-old and completely confused about what to do.”

Another Indian student said in a message sent to LMU, “I have read that the university’s student visa licence has been suspended by the UKBA. Can you please let me know the status of your college now? I almost applied for the September 2012 intake for MSc Aviation Management. Now, I am in two minds. Please, please, please clarify.”

Student Union official Adnan Pavel said, “Our licence has been suspended for the last six weeks and the university is suffering. Government ministers say no final decision has been made, but students are scared about what may happen.

Long-term, there will be a negative impact, especially for students from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh who will be reluctant to come. They will prefer to go to a university in countries such as USA, Canada and Australia.”

Pavel, who is from Bangladesh, told the local media: “If the university’s licence was revoked while I was out of the UK I might not be able to come back. I am the only son and my parents were waiting for me. But after I read the story and saw how critical the situation was I couldn’t fly. I paid £580 for a flight with Emirates, but I lost all the money because I cancelled at the 11th hour.”

He added: “Students are in panic, they do not know what to do. Some of my friends studying for PhDs just need to complete their dissertations. Which university will take them if they just need to complete one semester?”

Another Bangladeshi student and union official, 26-year-old Syed Rumman, 26, told London’s Evening Standard newspaper: “I am also on the university’s governing body. If I am forced to leave, the students would lose out on representation. The students are panicking. They have come all the way from their home countries and have left their families, and this news is causing a lot of stress for them. This would be a threat to higher education across the whole of the UK. People think a British education is the best in the world but they won’t come here if this happens.”

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120831/main8.htm

Dawn – Zardari, Singh meet in Tehran: Both leaders stick to their stands

Tehran, 31 August 2012. The long-awaited meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held on the sidelines of the NAM summit here on Thursday achieved little beyond the former reiterating the desire for close bilateral relations and improved trade and the Indian leader saying little except stressing the need for Pakistan to act firmly against militants blamed for Mumbai attacks.

It was expected that Dr Singh would make a positive announcement about his long overdue visit to Islamabad and that the two sides would set a date for the visit, but he again restricted himself to saying that he would travel to Pakistan at an ‘appropriate time’.

President Zardari said Pakistan and India must make determined efforts and maintain focus to steer their dialogue process in a productive and result-oriented manner. “We have covered a lot of ground but we still have to go a long way.”

The president said it was important to move beyond reiteration of positions to more substantive results.He said Pakistan was committed to pursuing the process of dialogue and engagement with India.

He said Pakistan was keenly looking forward to a visit by Prime Minister Singh at an early date.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar described the meeting as “good”.

“There is an ample proof that the political leadership of the two countries is committed to improving and normalising ties with each other,” she told APP.

Ms Khar said Pakistan believed that it was the right approach and the requirement of the times and emerging regional situation to have better ties with all countries, particularly those in the region.

“It is important that we are able to move past the challenges of the past and into a new era of cooperation and being able to resolve our disputes,” she said.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries are scheduled to meet in Islamabad in September to review the second round of dialogue process that resumed after a gap of two years.

The president recalled his meeting with Dr Singh during his daylong private visit to India in April and said he was deeply touched by the warm hospitality extended to him in New Delhi and Ajmer Sharif.

He praised the Indian prime minister’s vision for a peaceful and prosperous South Asia.

The president said Pakistan desired to have friendly, cooperative and good neighbourly relations with India, as it had a deep interest in promoting peace and stability in the region.

President Zardari said the South Asian region had enormous potential and cooperation between the two countries was imperative to exploiting this potential.

The two leaders also noted a substantive improvement in economic and trade relations between the two countries.

The president expressed satisfaction at the completion of the second round of the dialogue process.

According to an Indian news website, Prime Minister Singh told President Zardari that expeditious conclusion of the Mumbai terror attack trial would be a ‘major’ confidence-building measure in bilateral relations.

The prime minister “underlined our terrorism-related concerns. He pressed for an expeditious conclusion of the 26/11 trial and said action taken in this sphere would be a major CBM,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said while briefing reporters on the meeting.

Mr Singh said action in Mumbai attack trial in Pakistan would help in bridging the trust deficit and build public support for the kind of relationship India would like to see between the two nations.

“The prime minister said he attached great importance to normalising relations with Pakistan and that he would like to visit that country at a suitable time, that is to say, he would like a well-prepared visit,” Mathai said.

Reiterating India’s desire for peaceful cooperative relations with Pakistan, Prime Minister Singh said there was a need to proceed with a “step-by-step, graduated” approach given the complexity of bilateral relationship.

http://dawn.com/2012/08/31/zardari-singh-meet-in-tehran-both-leaders-stick-to-their-stands/

The Tribune – Rain raises water level in Bhakra, Pong dams

Umesh Dewan, Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 29. With heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh and several parts of Punjab, water level in the Bhakra and Pong dams have gone up by 18.93 and 22.15 feet.

As per the latest figures, on August 28, the water level in Bhakra dam was 1627.29 feet whereas in Pong dam, the figure stood at 1367.25 feet.

The water levels in these dams, in spite of the heavy rains in the last few weeks, are still less compared to last year.

Despite the revival in the monsoon this year, the water level is only 16.11 feet more that what it was in 2009, when the region was hit by a drought.

Last year, the water level in Bhakra and Pong dams stood at 1672.69 feet and 1384.01 feet.

Hydro power generation from the Bhakra Beas Management Board projects on August 28 was recorded to be 397.91 Lakh Unit (LU) against last year’s generation of 537.57 LU.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120830/punjab.htm#13

The Tribune – Once a Sloane Ranger, now a Sikh woman ‘warrior’: Meet Alexandra a.k.a. Uttrang Kaur Khalsa

Shyam Bhatia in London

An English girl has hit the headlines in the UK for embracing the lifestyle of a devout Nihang Sikh.

Alexandra Aitken, daughter of disgraced British Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken, used to be better known for her addiction to parties and nightclubs. But Alexandra exchanged her tight dresses and plunging necklines for the more sober white tunic and five ‘K’s’, including the kirpan and the karha.

More recently, she was spotted in Punjab wearing a Nihang-style purple and white turban. She was clutching a tall spear in one hand and a bag of bananas in the other. It was in January last year when 32-year-old Alexandra surprised her family by announcing that she was marrying a Nihang Sikh – Ludhiana-bred Inderjot Singh, also known as Janbazz. Alexandra currently stays at Bani ashram, close to Anandpur Sahib, with her husband.

Shortly before her marriage, Alexandra changed her name to Harvinder, but when her husband said the name was meaningless, she changed it once again to Uttrang Kaur Khalsa, meaning victorious return of the warrior after battle.

Describing the first meeting with Janbazz, she said: “I was sitting on the roof of the Golden Temple at about 3am, and the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my whole life walked in. He seemed 100 per cent man, gentle and intuitive and poetic and sensitive, but also extraordinarily strong and manly. And you don’t see many of these around. So I was like: “Oh wow!”‘

Following their wedding, her friends received an email message which read: “Hi, heavenly friends. A very funny forgiving huge hearted saintly hero was adventurous enough to marry me! We’ll have celebrations in London and LA soon. Hope you’ll join us.”

By her own admission, Utrrang said her parents were upset as they could not attend the wedding, which had been arranged at such short notice. But they were soon reconciled. “’When I said, “Daddy, I might be wearing a turban the next time you see me” it was a bit of a shock. But my father loves my husband – its impossible not to. He’s happy for us,” she said.

Former Cabinet Minister Aitken tried suing the Guardian newspaper over an article about his links with Saudi arms dealers.

But Aitken himself ended up in jail after he was found to have repeatedly lied. Uttrang’s journey to Sikhism started after she moved to California where she studied yoga, subsequently explaining that it was always her destiny to become a yogi. In a newspaper interview last year, she explained her conversion to Sikhism. “I don’t really think of Sikhism as a religion. It’s more a path for anyone who is looking for something more spiritual.”

“We live in a computer age where life is increasingly stressful . . .people are desperately trying to find a way to relax, to escape from everything. As I see it, you’ve got one of two options: you can either find a drug dealer, or you can find something that’s going to give you a natural high. Everyone is looking for something. I’ve found Sikhism,” said Utrrang.

“But I didn’t just jump on the first bus going. I did my homework; I’ve read just about everything,” she said. “Frankly, if someone had told me 10 years ago, when I was living the party girl lifestyle in London, that a decade later I’d be a teetotal vegan (and living in an ashram) I wouldn’t have believed them,” she quipped.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120830/main7.htm

The Hindu – I’m sure Pakistan won’t fail to take note of verdict: Krishna

After Indian official sources pointed to the slow pace of prosecuting 26/11 masterminds

Special Correspondent

Tehran, 30 August 2012. On a day the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence on Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks, Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, here to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, expressed their views on the issue of prosecuting the masterminds of the 2008 massacre.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, when asked for his reaction, said: “I am sure Pakistan will not fail to take note of this” and added that he was sure the judiciary in Pakistan was similarly active. Mr. Krishna’s observations follow Indian official sources saying on Tuesday that the slow pace of prosecuting the Pakistani masterminds of the Mumbai attacks showed there was a “serious difference in how the Indian state reacts and how the Pakistani state fails to react.”

Hina Khar optimistic

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar prefaced her comments by expressing optimism about possible talks on Thursday between Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the NAM Summit here.

“We are moving out of the trust deficit zone, and that is a pre-requisite for us to be able to really sit on the negotiating table and solve most important issues,” she told newspersons.

On Pakistan acting against the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks, Ms. Khar said: “Recently, the Pakistani High Commissioner in India had clearly articulated what the requirements are to move forward in that.

“Both India and Pakistan need to tackle their disputes and other issues in a more mature manner, so that they don’t continue to haunt the two countries and their governments,” she added.

“We’ve to move beyond”

But perhaps basing her comments entirely on reports by a section of the Indian media which put the entire blame for SMS and web images at Pakistan’s door for creating panic among people of the northeast working elsewhere in India, she said: “I think simply that we need to really find a more mature way to be able to handle all of these issues because they will continue to haunt us.”

“So, I am, in my position, very disappointed every time something reaches Pakistan through the media, because we believe that we have been able to invest in this relationship enough to expect a call from any counterpart if any such concern, suspicion arises. Because we have to move beyond this. You know, really, giving more fuel to a hostility type of narrative in each other’s media, I think, your media, really needs to become more positive,” she added.

But the official Indian reaction has been otherwise. Official sources have said the issue would not be raised in Thursday’s meeting as it was not a state-to-state issue. The answer lay in keeping a tab on web trends as the images had started circulating a week before panic set in leading to people from the northeast working and studying in some parts of the country, rushing back to their home States.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3836930.ece