Published 3 months ago – Jagmohan Singh
25 June 2019
As the World Sikh News completes two years of its presence on the internet, we focus on the working in the Sikh world. On the eve of the elections in the Punjab, with deep anguish, we present an analysis of the political canvas of the Sikhs, the Sikh leadership in Panjab and the Diaspora. We will soon follow up with detailed analyses of Sikh social and religious forums.
As India goes to the hustings, the Sikh leadership from Punjab to the hustings, the Sikh leadership from Punjab to the Diaspora is in utter shambles. There is no organisation or individual worth the salt who can lead the situation and take the community forward in these trying times.
The religious, political and religio-political leadership, the traditional and revolution-inclined parties are all in limbo, waiting in the wings for a miracle to happen or a leader to descend from the skies. No party or leader, individually or collecively has framed the Sikh agenda and thrusted down the throat of the political parties contesting the elections.
Once upon a time, the Akali leadership was considered the Sikh leadership. Over the decades, they became Punjabi leadership in name to feed their pseudo-secular stance but in effect they are always at sea, not knowing which side to lean on. Today, the Badal Dal leadership is swinging between the Panth and the BJP, but doggedly pursuing their selfish and feudal politics.
Sikhs in the Congress have been voted to power many a time in the past but they have never qualified nor have been accepted as Sikh leadership by the Sikh population. They do not deserve to be so called, anyway. The present leadership certainly does not deserve to be called Sikh leaders.
For the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Panjab begins and ends in Sangrur. Though the party raises Sikh issues, the leadership is found wanting on many fronts. The Bharatiya Janta Party, through some nouveau-riche Sikhs has made inroads into the political fibre of Punjab, with active connivance and support of the Badal Dal, but they can never dream of being liked or accepted as Sikh leaders.
As for the Aam Aadmi Party, neither the party nor the leadership has any pretence of being Sikh leaders and they have still to make up their minds whether they want to align with the people of Panjab or their wavering leadership in Delhi.
The Taksali Akali Dal wants to be holier than thou and is heavily banking on the leftovers or breakaways from their parent party. They are still making up their mind whether they want to be pro-Panjab and pro-Panth or simply anti-Badal.
The Panjab Ekta Party is an attempt to be secular yet pro-Panjabi. The party leadership is still evolving and so far has only been able to break away from its parent Aam Aadmi Party.
The Lok Insaaf Party is testing the waters as it expands from Ludiana to around the state with their efficient management approach and provoking political mannerisms. Much water has to flow down the Sutlej till the leaders become Sikh leaders of the state and beyond.
Long ago, the Bahujan Samaj Party concluded that the 13 Parliamentary seats of Panjab do not have much significance in the larger scheme of things as it is Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar which decides who will get majority in the house of 543 members. The party has very little interest in the Punjab.
The Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and some extreme left versions continue their ‘botched politics’ of increasing the numbers of their vote count, without making an impact, but certainly siding with the State as opposed to Sikh interests.
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee leadership has sold its body, mind and soul to the Bharatiya Janta Party. It would be naive and stupid to expect anything from them.
The Panjab Bachao Morcha of the Chandigarh club is devoid of innovative ideas and continues their anti-Badal rant. It has still to come to terms with what the revolutionary Chandigarh poet Gajinder Singh said years ago, “change and revolution does not come about over endless cups of tea in the comfort of drawing rooms.”
The All India Sikh Students Federation which was once the leadership bank of the Shiromani Akali Dal is now bankrupt; the defunct body has a lineage of sycophants and wayward activists. They are not leaders and they have no organisation to lead, it is torn apart into so many groups that the body is totally defunct. Nobody can lead the body, how will they lead the community?
The Bargari Insaf Morcha shamelessly has now got nothing to do with Bargari, no Insaf is sought and the Morcha has fizzled out. In their love for politics, they do not attend court hearings of top police personnel incarcerated for Bargari and Behbal Kalan police firings and then let off on bails. This morcha has been the biggest let down of the decade for the Sikhs, particularly those who expected the moon.
The Panthic Coordination Committee, working since the last decade has proffered no Panthic agenda; there is no coordination and the committee exists only on paper.
The Sikh Sewak Army, professedly non-political, but has not moved an inch on the ground to change the functioning of the SGPC. Unless it catches the bull by its horns, sweet-mouthings in the media will not fetch results.
On the sidelines, those who do not directly participate in the elections yet claim to be religious and religio-political leaders have failed to show initiative and dash.
The religio-political leadership of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is too content to serve langar to candidates and supporters of the Badal Dal and wherever possible send employees in mufti as volunteers of the party. There is hardly any dividing line between the party and the SGPC, prompting the Sikh Sangat to paint both with the same brush.
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee leadership has sold its body, mind and soul to the Bharatiya Janta Party. It would be naive and stupid to expect anything from them.
The Takht Harmandar Patna Sahib Committee and the Takht Hazur Sahib Nanded Committee is always ready to be manipulated either by the government of the day or by the SGPC. So engrossed in their own worlds, it is a far cry for them to provide leadership to the community on any front.
The Chief Khalsa Diwan, throwing the idiom, wisdom, vision and historical work of its founder Bhai Vir Singh to the winds, is now a ‘private limited company’ of Amritsar-based rich Sikhs, who are engaged in changing the course, nomenclature and ownership of the properties of the organisation. For them Sikh leadership as an issue ceased long back.
The Akhand Kirtani Jatha and the Damdami Taksal have lost their political voice. They are either silent or aligned to some individuals here and there.
The Gurmat Missionary Colleges selectively become ‘religious’ and ‘semi-political’ or ‘political’ depending upon canddate and the times. Their leadership is too barricaded and without a world view of the Sikhs or the Sikh world. They are so engrossed in ‘protecting’ the religious dictum as per their thinking that they end up creating more divisions than bridging those already there.
For the political forums in Panjab and elsewhere dedicated to uphold the sovereignty of the people of Punjab, the elections in Punjab offer no ground for work. So they think.
The Dal Khalsa cadres are on a three-month sabbatical, free to pursue any political party or person of their choice, as the party has taken the stand of not contesting any elections under the Indian dispensation.
The Sikh Federation UK, the American Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the ‘June 1984 groups’ and the World Sikh Organisation of Canada would heretofore take keen interest in the religio-political developments in Panjab. Not anymore.
Now Sikhs are left to fend for themselves. These bodies are too entrenched in their own political canvasses to worry about the Panjab, except a human rights violation here and there. The same is the situation with other groups in other countries.
The Diaspora bodies in all the countries where Sikhs now have sizable numbers and those numbers are increasing with the flight of Sikhs from the Panjab, these bodies are more concerned about local problems and their solutions.
The Sikh Referendum 2020 team in the Diaspora is desperately waiting for 2019 to pass. If you want to believe them, in the year 2020, notwithstanding whatever kind of referendum they will be able to manage, all problems of the community will be solved.
Sikhs will be in the seventh skies and Sikh sovereignty which we lost on 29 March 1849, will be restored in the year 2020. Does their leadership look, speak and function like Sikh leaders?
The candidature of Paramjit Kaur Khalra has given a little fillip to the Diaspora Sikh bodies to identify with human rights as an agenda.
Otherwise from UK to Canada to Australia to the US, they would have remained silent spectators, first allowing things to happen without intervention and then ruing that ‘look this is happening in Hindu India.’ Regurgitation is their forte.
The Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee will do well to follow the trail of Sikh heritage experts and look after the huge spectrum of Sikh legacy wasting by the day in that country. It will do well to look after the economic needs of the poorest of the poor Sikhs in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Diaspora miserably failed in its assessment of the Aam Aadmi Party in the last elections, funding the party to the teeth and giving false high hopes of political power to their Sikh candidates, with many waiting in the wings to become the Chief Minister of the state.
In the present times, in the Diaspora and within Panjab has emerged a string of social media warriors who spare no opportunity to pick up Sikh issues and raise their voice against injustices by the state or union government.
They relentlessly expose the political renegades in the community. They are happy in their cocoons and would not like to become leaders of the Sikh community.
The religio-political leadership of the Jathedars, recognised by the SGPC to those recognised by the Sarbat Khalsa has miserably failed to provide direction to the existing parties or to anyone else. They are too involved in pursuing their own agendas only.
In the sixties of the last century, Pettigrew wrote her path-breaking analysis of politics in Punjab in her book Robberman Nobleman and said that politics in Panjab is everything about ‘paltybaazi’. The group is more important than the Panth. The stance of the group is more important than the cause. The party is more important than Panjab. The party leaders are more important than the Sikh masses.
Out of the political party sphere, no individual has either aspired or volunteered or worked to shake the old foundations of the political systems in Panjab and prove Irish anthropologist Joyce Pettigrew wrong.
In such times, with such a situation, what will happen? Nothing. No individual or party from the present sphere has the capacity, capability and vision to nurture and throw up Sikh leadership. As has happened in the past and as it stands, there will be a major upheaval in the Indian subcontinent and some kind of Sikh leadership will emerge. Will it be ready to take the situation head on and guide the destiny of the community?
The freedom and the opportunity that the West provides to the Sikhs settled there should enable them for a more benevolent, visionary and effective interaction with the Panjab and Panth and not limit only to religious dogma and dictum.
Many of these groups and individuals have the interest of the Panth and Punjab at heart. However that is not enough. The context and perspective has to change. Repeating the same dialogues, the same arguments, yearning for funding is not going to help. The huge monster of Indian democracy cannot be wished away or fought with merely sloganeering and crying hoarse.
Soul-searching, adoption of new technologies, adaption of new world political thinking, developing Sikh leadership from amongst the youth from scratch, giving up old hyperbole, stopping to drum discrimination, engaging with the people of all castes, class and shades, reorienting the teachings of the Gurus and making it part of our lives and changing the social and religious fibre to be more inclusive and visionary.
All this needs to happen and happen fast.
From Punjab to Diaspora, Sikh leadership in shambles
