The Tribune – 2012 Panjab looking back – Sikh clergy; An eventful year for SGPC, Akal Takht

Perneet Singh, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 26. The Akal Takht and the SGPC hogged the limelight for a better part of the year for their decision to construct the Operation Bluestar Memorial, besides the move of rallying in the support of Delhi blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Beant Singh assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana.

The decision to construct the memorial sparked a huge debate with the Congress and other political parties, including the ruling SAD’s alliance partner BJP, condemning it, arguing that it may revive militancy in the state which has already paid a heavy price in terms of economy and loss of life during the dark days of terrorism. However, unfazed by the criticism, the SGPC went ahead with it while maintaining that the memorial will only house a gurdwara which will spread the message of peace. It justified the move, contending that the memorial had been a long pending demand of Sikhs and the Sikh leadership was well aware of the community’s sentiments. The SGPC handed over the “kar sewa” of the memorial to the Damdami Taksal headed by Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa.

The Sikh high priests then laid the foundation stone of the memorial on June 6, the 28th anniversary of the Army operation. The issue returned to haunt the SGPC once again in October when Lt Gen KS Brar (retd) who led the Army in the Operation Bluestar was attacked by some unidentified assailants in London. While the SGPC remained tightlipped over the incident, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde indirectly asked it to introspect on their move.

The Sikh clergy and the SGPC hit the headlines when they opposed the capital punishment being awarded to Bhullar and Rajoana. The SGPC had even moved clemency petitions before the President to save them from the death sentence. The then President Pratibha Patil had rejected the mercy plea of Bhullar on May 26, 2011, following which the SGPC had filed a clemency petition before the President on July 26, 2011.

Similarly, the Sikh high priests and the SGPC threw their weight behind Rajoana when a court ordered his execution in March this year. The state government had refused to hang him. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal even met the then President Pratibha Patil to seek clemency for Rajoana whose death sentence was later stayed by the Centre.

The Sikh high priests even bestowed the title of Zinda Shaheed (living martyr) on Rajoana. The clergy led by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh presented a plaque, a shawl, a “siropa” and a sword to Kamaldeep Kaur, Rajoana’s sister, who received the title on his behalf. Though Rajoana had declined the title, the Akal Takht had refused to withdraw it.

Meanwhile, the fate of the new SGPC House continued to hang in balance even after a year of the SGPC elections held on September 18 last year, as the hearing of the case over the Sehajdhari row is still pending in the Supreme Court.

At present, the SGPC neither has the old House nor the new one. Though the apex court has authorised the SGPC executive (elected in 2010) to manage the Sikh institution’s daily affairs, the legal tangle has hit its normal functioning. This is evident from the fact that perhaps for the first time in its history the SGPC could not pass its annual budget in March this year as there was no House. The SGPC executive passed the vote-on-account for managing the affairs.

The year gone by also saw the Sikh community coming face to face with Dera Radha Soami Satsang, Beas, over the alleged demolition of a gurdwara at Waraich village, although the matter was amicably resolved later on. The controversy also saw various Sikh outfits announcing their move to “boycott” the Akal Takht Jathedar for giving the clean chit to the dera over this issue. The Jathedar had attributed his move to an SGPC panel report which said no sacrilege was committed in “shifting” the gurdwara. Later, the dera head came forward and offered to reconstruct the gurdwara which led to the resolution of the issue.

The Akal Takht Jathedar got embroiled in another controversy when he supported a complete marriage Act for Sikhs instead of mere amendment to the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, though he quickly did a volte face and supported Anand Marriage Amendment Bill, 2012, which was later passed by both the houses of Parliament.

The Wisconsin gurdwara shootout in the US also brought to the fore the fact that the Sikhs abroad are still facing the issue of identity and the community needs to take urgent measures to deal with it.

Taking serious note of the rising instances of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh clergy initiated stringent measures for facilitating a copy of the holy book. The Sikh high priests also issued guidelines for transportation of religious books.

The SGPC finally installed jammers inside the sanctum sanctorum at the Golden Temple while it also started the facility of “pinni parshad” for the devotees visiting the shrine from far-flung areas.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121227/punjab.htm#2

Den Haag Gurdwara – Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Scheepersstraat, 23 June 2012

After my 23 June walk along the tram tracks I visited the Scheepersstraat Gurdwara and on Sunday 24 June I went to the Rotterdam Gurdwara Siri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. After showing the pictures of these visits we will continue our trip to Duindorp by HTM Tram 12

Scheeperstraat Singh Sabha
Nishan Sahib

Scheeperstraat Singh Sabha
Nishan Sahib

Scheeperstraat Singh Sabha
Wedding party

Scheeperstraat Singh Sabha
Wedding party

Gursev Singh Amsterdam & friends

I did not know about this wedding and did not expect to meet with Gursev Singh, I just happened to arrive at the right moment

Sri Guru Singh Sabha
Scheepersstraat 54
2572 AL Den Haag (The Hague)

To see more Belgium and Netherlands gurdwara pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622147381380/

More Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Anand Marriage Bill introduced in Rajya Sabha

Aditi Tandon, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7. The government today brought before Parliament a Bill to amend the 103-year-old statute that hitherto allowed solemnisation of Sikh marriages but not their legal validation.

The Anand Marriage Amendment Bill:2012, introduced in the Rajya Sabha today by Law Minister Salman Khurshid, amends the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, by inserting a new Section enabling registration of marriages performed as per the Sikh rituals (Anand Karaj).

The amendment Bill defines the Sikh marriage ceremony as “Anand Karaj” instead of “Anand” as in the old law. Once passed by both Houses of Parliament, it will give the Sikhs the liberty to register their marriages separately and will exempt them from registering these under the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths Act, 1969 (which the government plans to amend to provide for religion neutral registration of marriages across India).

The Sikhs would continue to have the option of registering their marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, as before. It was registration under this Act that had been causing confusion about their religious identity abroad with their marriage certificates describing them as Hindus.

Importantly, the amendment Bill doesn’t provide for divorce among Sikh couples. For a divorce, they would have to use the Hindu Marriage Act.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer H S Phoolka, commenting on the matter, said: “Because the amendment Bill serves a limited purpose of giving Sikh religion a separate identity by allowing marriage registration under a pre-existing law, it is not a complete marriage law.

“Any religion to be recognised must have its separate ceremony of births, deaths and marriages. Sikhs didn’t have a separate marriage law so far and they wanted the Anand Marriage Act amended for the purpose. For divorce, Sikhs can use the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.”

The amendment Bill clearly states that “parties whose marriage has been registered under this Act won’t be required to get marriage registered under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, after the enactment of the proposed amendments in this Bill.” “Today we have won the battle for a separate identity as a religion,” said former MP Tarlochan Singh who led the movement for the Bill. “The SGPC is also against any divorce provision under the Anand Marriage Amendment Bill,” he said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law had approved these amendments in 2007 when Veerappa Moily was Law Minister. “The Bill need not go again to the standing committee and can be simply taken up and passed,” Tarlochan Singh added.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120508/punjab.htm#1

510.The Man in Blue – Twelve on death row in Panjab

Recently I posted an article from the Tribune (Chandigarh) on my blog that highlighted the fact that a lot of noise was made about Balwant Singh Rajoana, but that apart from him there are eleven more prisoners in similar situations.

“The convicts sentenced to death and languishing in the [Panjab] jails are Vikram Singh, Jasbir Singh, Balwant Singh Rajoana, Mohinder Singh, Suraj Ahluwalia, Resham Singh, Gurnayab Singh, Kulbir Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Saleem, Judge Singh and Gurwail Singh. While some were given the sentence in 2005 and 2006, others were awarded the penalty in 2007, 2011 and 2012.”
From an article by Aman Sood, Tribune News Service, April 3.

This list does not include Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, as he is not in a Panjabi jail.

What is needed is that groups concerned with Human Rights in Panjab come together, investigate these cases and decide on a strategy.

Whatever these convicts have been up to, whatever their crimes, nobody deserves to be condemned to death and then live for years between hope of life and fear of death. And I hope that most Sikhs will agree with me that the death penalty should be abolished altogether.

I think that we should make an inventory of those that are still in prison as a result of (alleged) crimes committed during the period from the late seventies till the early nineties, some of whom might never have been convicted of any crime.

It was good that we were present in Leuven (near Brussel) when Kamal Nath addressed a conference there. But also in this type of situations we run from incident to incident, there is no strategy.

We have been told that the Indian central government has passed an amendment of the Anand Marriage Act which would allow Sikhs to marry without having to register under the Hindu Marriage Act.

In most European countries Sikhs have no problem marrying according to the Anand Karaj ceremony as set out in the Sikh Rehat Maryada, while registering their marriage under a neutral general act.

This is not a feasible option in India as long as article 25 of the constitution throws Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs together on one messy heap !

We have to constantly hammer this point, not by denying the common roots of the four Dharmic religions, but by insisting that within that context all four have their own particular tradition.

Let us all stop saying that spiritual verses of Muslims and Hindus are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, but be specific and say that verses of Sufi Muslims and Bhakti Hindus are to be found in our Eternal Guru. That might also do away with this strange idea that Guru’s Sikhí is a cocktail of Islam and Hinduism.

457.The Man in Blue – Anand Karaj in India

I went to New Delhi to attend the wedding of Dildeep Singh, son of Amrik Singh (Heathrow) with Jaspreet Kaur of Moti Nagar. The wedding took place on 16 January and I did not leave till the early morning of the 22^nd and therefore I noticed how much time and money goes into registering the marriage.

The first step was to get a certificate from the Gurdwara stating that the marriage took place. Instead of having to go back to the Gurdwara the next day it would have been helpful if a witnessed certificate was made up on the day. 

The next step was to get a ‘no objection certificate’ from the British High Commission. Without this certificate you cannot register the marriage between a UK and an Indian citizen. The High Commission issues these certificates without checking if the UK citizen is already married. The text on the certificate says, in a polite way, that it is meaningless, but you are charged Rs 3500 regardless.   

Step three was a day excursion to Tis Hazare. Tis Hazare is both a notorious jail and a court complex surrounded by lawyer’s offices. These lawyers might do your work for a modest fee or for a fee that for ordinary Indians is astronomical, and the quality of their work is not necessarily related to the amount you pay.

Via local contacts Amrik Singh and family managed to find somebody who did the work for a fairly reasonable amount. And what is the result ? Dildeep Singh and Jaspreet Kaur are now registered as man and wife under the Hindu marriage act !

After all this effort and expenditure you get what you do not really want … 

UK Gurdwaré and other places of worship can conduct a marriage according to their own tradition and at the same time act as a registry office. Under the British Raj the Anand Karaj was recognised as a legal form of marriage and even Pakistan has now recognised the Sikh marriage ceremony.

While India and Pakistan kept a lot of the colonial legislation, neither country kept the Anand Karaj Act on the statute book. India adopted article 25 of the constitution which treats Buddhist, Jains and Sikhs as Hindus. Seen from article 25 it is ‘logical’ that followers of these three Dharmic traditions come under the Hindu marriage act. Whether the Anand Karaj Act was taken off the statute book immediately in 1947 or only after the adoption of the constitution I do not know.

Maybe stimulated by the activities of the Dal Khalsa and non-Indian Sikh organisations the SGPC is actively lobbying Pardhan Mantri Manmohan Singh on the issue. But will Madam Sonia allow him to recognise the Anand Karaj ? If Badal & son were to support the Anand Karaj would that damage their pact with the BJP ?

If Maharaja Amarinder Singh, the leader of the Panjabi Congress, came out in support of a new Anand Karaj Act without waiting for permission from Madam, that would be very helpful. Whatever happens, any change in India will take time.