Singh, Mahan

I have not followed this topic here. Someone may have already posted the guide lines prepared by the Sikh Council U.K.. However, a clearly written version can be seen at the Sikh Siyasat website.. In that write up a coloured chart showing “The Steps to be Taken When Booking an Anand Karaj” is also given at the end. To read click at the link below http://sikhsiyasat.net/2015/08/30/sikh-council-uk-issues-advisory-to-uk-gurdwaras-on-anand-karaj-protocols/

Source: http://www.rozanapehredar.in/content/28-august-2015?p=04 ( The article appeared in the Punjabi Vernacular news paper, The Rozana Peheredar of August 28, 2015. It is on the middle of the page shown ion the link above.) S. Karnail Singh Panjoli, mamber of SGPC expresses his views about the state of Sikhi, and Sikh institutions in Punjab

Are the Changes in SPGC to make it ineffective being brought in ?

Om Parkash Chutala (former Chief Minister of Haryana ) is serving 10 years of imprisonment sentence in Tihar Jail, Delhi for some serious improprieties when he was the Chief Minister of Haryana. . He is citizen of Haryana. The crime for which he received 10 years prison sentence happened in Haryana He or the case has nothing to do with Punjab. But, he is a very good friend of Badals. It is generally said ( a widely believed rumour) that he helped Badals to cheaply acquire land on which Badals have built 5 star hotel and resort complex in Gurgaon (on the out skirts of Delhi – Gurgaon district is in Haryana- The land around Indira Gandhi International Airport is in Gurgaon district. ) In return ( it is believed) Badal is tacitly supporting Haryana‘s claim on Punjab river waters by staying silent and doing nothing in pursuing Punjab’s claim. . Now Badal is trying to have Chutala transferred from Tihar Jail to Bathinda Jail in Punjab because Mr. Chutala is feeling very uncomfortable in Tihar Jail ( even though Cuatala has nothing to do with Punjab) -- . But Badal seems to be making it as a Human Right’s issue for Punjab. But,what about the Human Rights of Bandi Singhs: Badal Sahib ? This video is about that story.

Jathedar (Bapu) Surat Singh Khalsa’s son-in -law was killed in Chicago (stabbed to death) ( Please note that I have written Jathedar instead of Bapu. Jathedar Surat Singh requested the Sangharsh committee not to call him “Bapu”, but instead may call him Jathedar, because (he said that) only Guru Gobind Singh is the Bapu of Sikhs. And the committee took that decision) Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/sikh-activist-khalsa-s-son-in-law-murdered-in-chicago/120762.html Sikh activist Khalsa’s son-in-law murdered in ChicagoMohit Khanna Tribune News Service Ludhiana, August 17 In a major setback to veteran Sikh activist Surat Singh Khalsa, his son- in-law Satwinder Singh Bhola was stabbed to death by an unidentified assailant near his house at Chicago in the United States on Monday. Bhola (65) was attacked at around 1.45am when he was heading to his house after parking his car. Khalsa has been observing fast at Hassanpur village of Ludhiana district, seeking the release of 82 Sikh prisoners lodged in various jails of the country. Sarvarinder Kaur, Bhola’s wife, who was with her father during his protest had returned to the US on August 5. Khalsa’s son Ravinderpal Singh Goggi said Bhola could have been killed to scuttle the hunger strike of Khalsa that had started on January 16. He demanded an independent probe by the US government into the matter to find out the truth behind the killing. Meanwhile, situation has become tense at Hassanpur village. Tight security arrangements have been made by the authorities to tackle any eventuality.

About the decisions taken in the Sangharsh Committee meeting of August 17, 2015

watch the part near the end of video (from 15:20 onward) .

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/2-akali-leaders-caught-with-detonators/120112.html 2 Akali leaders caught with ‘detonators Senior police officers, Army reach Bathinda Senior police officers and two Army teams on Friday reached the CIA police station of Bathinda where the detonators recovered from the car of two Akali leaders were taken The two leaders — Kulwinder Singh, former sarpanch of Ratta Khera village in Muktsar, and his brother Lakhwinder Singh — hailed from Lambi (Muktsar), the home constituency of CM Parkash Singh Badal Gurdeep Singh Mann Tribune News Service Bathinda, August 14 The police are baffled over the recovery of 10 “detonators” from an accident-hit car that belongs to two Akali leaders from Lambi (Muktsar), the home constituency of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The two leaders — Kulwinder Singh, former sarpanch of Ratta Khera village in Muktsar, and his brother Lakhwinder Singh — have been detained for questioning. Though Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) Rohit Chaudhary described the “detonators” as firecrackers, investigators said the recovery was mystifying. Colonel Sukhcharan Singh (retd), Chief Security Officer of Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant at Lehra Mohabbat town of Bathinda where the accident took place late on Thursday night, however, refuted the ADGP’s claim saying he saw “detonators” in the car. Colonel Singh had informed the police about the presence of “detonators” in the car of the two Akali leaders who were reportedly returning from Chandigarh after meeting the CM. “Around 5.30am, I noticed two bundles of 10 wires — five in each bundle — attached with batteries lying in the car. A security guard also noticed it. Sensing trouble, I called up Superintendent of Police (city) Des Raj,” he said. The two leaders reportedly carried a pistol. “They seemed to be under the influence of liquor. They said if anyone came near their vehicle, he/she would be blown off,” said a local resident on the condition of anonymity. Besides Kulwinder and Lakhwinder, the police have detained taxi driver Gurjant Singh and a thermal plant employee, Sukhmandar Singh, for “helping” the duo reach the Bathinda Circuit House, adjacent to the official residence of the Deputy Commissioner. Senior Superintendent of Police Indermohan Bhatti, whom the duo called up after the accident and sought security cover, said he knew them and nothing incriminating was recovered from their car. The leaders had reportedly asked the taxi driver to remove the registration plates of their car claiming it was not insured, but the driver refused to do so as he was not carrying required tools. “The rear windscreen of the leaders’ car was intact at night, but was found smashed in the morning. Both number plates are also missing,” another villager said. Though senior policemen tried to “brush the incident under the carpet”, it turned into a major case after the entire police force along with ADGP (Law and Order) Rohit Chaudhary from Chandigarh, Bathinda Range IG Balvir Kumar Bawa, DIG Mohnish Chawla, SSP Indermohan Bhatti and two Army teams arrived at the CIA police station. A case has been registered at the Nathana police station.

Bapu Surat Singh’s Letter Written to Parkash Singh Badal on August 10, 2015. Letter is written in Gurmukhi Must read @ Source: http://sikhsiyasat.net/2015/08/13/bapu-surat-singh-khalsa-writes-to-cm-badal-sets-aug-15-as-deadline/

I watch Sangat TV on internet occasionally. Have not watched it for a few days. But, today, when I tried to watch it , seems it is off air and some other domain comes up. Can someone tell what the problem is?

In this thread please, post videos related to the Sangharsh and the underlying issues Video from the Rozana Perherdar (a Punjabi Vernacular news paper) about restricting Bapu Surat Singh's religious freedom even to attend Akhand Paatth in his local Gurdwara only about 200 meters away from his home. Bapu Surat Singh is not under areest (is kept in undeclared confinement to his his home by Punjab Police) For non Sikhs who do not know what Akhand Paatth is- it is a special religious service held in Gurdwara at the request of a Sikh for any event of significance in his personal life, or by the Sikh community on the occasion that has special significance for the community. Bapu Surat Singh is on hunger strike to have released all political prisoners, in Indian jails, who have completed their court "imposed" sentences. Many of these prisoners, inspite of the fact that they have completed their sentences but still are not being let out . Most of them belong to minority communities or from poor families who can't afford years long court proceeders. Bapu Surat Singh has been on hunger strike for a long time now . He is very weak and he thinks the he is going to die in a few days,. So, he wanted to attend what he thinks would, likely, be his last attendence at the religious service (Akhand Patth) before he dies. . He is very weak, can't walk, now has difficulty even speaking. According to The Perherdar (the news paper- who made the video posted below) , Bapu Surat Singh was carried by his supporters to the Gurdwara. But the Police picked him again in the middle of Akand Patth (religious service) and carried him back to his house. When the other worshipers at the Gurdwara protested, the police beat them up and arrested some worshipers as well.

The Kanwar Sandhu Show with Khalistan supporter, Simranjit Singh Mann (Full Episode)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PfX4mYg_w Interview of Sanjay Suri, the Author of the Book mentioned in this thread with journalist Kanwar Sandu. The Kanwar Sandhu Show with an eye witness of 1984 Sikh Violence, Sanjay Suri(Full Episode) . .

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. After 31 years some eye witness accounts have slowly started to come out! Excerpts from an interview with Sanjay Suri by The Indian Express . Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/sanjay-suri-three-thousand-murders-and-no-justice-is-this-not-betrayal/ . Sanjay Suri: Three thousand murders and no justice. Is this not betrayal? Thirty years after he reported on the 1984 riots, Sanjay Suri gives a scalding account of it in his book. Sanjay Suri was staring at the dining table in his house in Malviya Nagar in Delhi, when he received a phone call. “Pata kar,” said a police officer friend, “Indira nu goli vajji ay.” It was October 31, 1984, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Suri, then 28, had been a journalist with The Indian Express for six years, the last two as a crime reporter. What started as follow-up into the assassination soon became coverage of mass killings of Sikhs. “I remember more of those three days than of all my years of reporting taken together,” says Suri, now Political Editor, Europe, for CNN-IBN. His book, 1984: The Anti-Sikh Violence and After (Harper Collins; Rs 499) comprises interviews with police officers, victims and campaigners, news reports and reports of commissions but it is Suri’s first-hand eye-witness accounts that hammer through the pages. Excerpts from an interview: Thirty years later, how do you look back at the anti-Sikh riots? I feel hurt and betrayed but with the sense that my feeling of hurt and betrayal is nothing compared to what people went through – the 3,000 people who died and the many thousands more who somehow survived, people who have lived with the loss, people who have been struggling hopelessly for justice. Perhaps if I had been a hardcore professional, 1984 would have been just another story but we had a career police officer like Ved Marwah saying that he had seen killings all his life but he was completely shattered by the brutality of what he discovered. And he only enquired into it, he didn’t actually see it. Who do you feel betrayed by? Betrayed by one government after another, betrayed by the police, betrayed by the judiciary. The police, first, failed to protect; second, it made sure that there would be no prosecutions. They did not register FIRs, they killed the process of justice itself. I feel betrayed by the Supreme Court commission of enquiry, one after another, which were set up. It was not just me who was betrayed, all of us were betrayed. You were betrayed as an Indian, as a person. What is it to live in a country, in a city, in which 3,000 murders took place and there was no justice? What does it feel? Is it not betrayal? You were a young reporter at the time, on the crime beat. How different, in violence and scale, were these riots. These were not riots, these were killings. I had covered riots before, in the Walled City. Now, thankfully, you don’t have communal riots in the city at all but these used to be very common at one time. Every few months, there would be incidents of violence around Jama Masjid but there were not that many killings. Killing was a serious thing, it was the ultimate crime. A body found would be terribly serious. When did you realise the scale of the killings? The killing started the day after the assassination but even then, in the middle of the killing, we didn’t realise how much. On November 1, I went out and found that two Sikhs had been burnt alive at Rakabganj Gurdwara. It was, I think on the third day that, I wrote the lead story in The Indian Express. The headline was ‘Murders have turned into Massacres’. It took a while for us to understand the scale of it. There was no communication from the police, there was no internet in those days, there was one official channel doing the government’s job, there was no mobile phone, nothing. We could make a landline call to the police from who we learnt nothing. Even on the third day, I did not realise that 3,000 had been killed. Hundreds were killed in Sultanpuri. We did not have immediate information, as it happened. The killings happened on November 1 and 2; it was only on the morning of November 3 that I could report that murders have turned into massacres. How did we come to know there were massacres? Only through The Indian Express reporters. The police were not admitting anything. Another reporter, Rahul Bedi, went to Trilokpuri; I went to Sultanpuri, which is where the biggest killings had taken place. When we came back, we realised how big this is. You have written separate chapters on killings in different parts of Delhi. Rakabganj Gurdwara was the first site of murders. What did you see there? When I went to Rakabganj Gurdwara, there were crowds outside and they were surging. Two Sikhs had already been burnt alive. I saw a crowd on the road surging again and again towards the gurdwara. By the side of this crowd was Kamal Nath. The crowd move forward, he raised his hand and they stopped. You could see this two ways– he stopped the crowd. My question is –what is the relationship between him and them that he had only to raise his hand and they stopped? Did you write the book merely to mark the anniversary of 1984? Somebody asked me, “Why did you wait 30 years to write a book?” Well, I didn’t wait to report the killings, not even a day. Everything was in The Indian Express the next morning. I turned my reports into affidavits in front of the Mishra Commision and then, Nanavati. That time, there was strong hope there would be some justice to which I would contribute my little bit. Thirty years later, that belief has still not entirely killed, despite the committees and commissions that have come and gone and done nothing. Many of the killers of the 3,000 people are still around. The police FIRs covered only 1,400 of them, which was less than half but, there is a fractional hope that it is still possible to make some arrests. Whether this will lead to a conviction in a court, who knows and I doubt it. The police should make the arrests and book these people. It would do something to ease the hurt in the Sikh side; and it is hurting.There were police officers, too, who stood up to the mob.I was not at the scene but I interviewed Maxwell Pereira at length. He was the Additional DCP (North District). There is a chapter on him and how he saved Sis Ganj almost single handedly. The reason I give these accounts now is partly to note the heroes of the time and they were rare. But, the idea is not just to note the heroism of an individual but to report these as what was possible. Just with a jeep-load of policemen and a few more gathered along the way, he stood in front of Sis Ganj and he would not let it be attacked. You mention covering the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington and have compared it to 1984. I have put down in the book, that I reported the 9/11 attacks in the US for the Outlook magazine. Three thousand killed there in a sudden, violent attack. Three thousand killed in New Delhi in a sudden violent attack. How have we reacted? How did they react? They said, ‘We want justice’. They didn’t forget it. Why are we being told, ‘forget about it, chhodo?’ .

Durga Vahini is one of the organizations of Sangh Parvar ( Family Organizations of RSS) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2yheq9_rss-giving-training-to-durga-vahini-to-kill-muslim-s-and-christians_news

"The Kanwar Sandhu Show" with Bhai Ranjit Singh.

I think I posted this picture before in one of the threads on this forum. That was in June 2015. . I wanted topost this picture again as it appeared (again) in an article in The Rozana Pehredar (a Punjabi Vernacular news paper) of July 25, 2015 What could this man do! He was arrested while visiting Golden Temple. (about two months ago in 2015). He is from U.k . Police arrested him and accused him of that he had come from UK to incite Sikh youth in Punjab. But his only fault (if you can call it a fault) was that he wore traditional attire of a Sikh warrior while visiting Darbar Sahib ! He was later released after a few days whithout charging him of any anything. Source: http://rozanapehredar.in/epaper_single/3703/2.jpg

The ongoing struggle: 1984 - Part 1 The ongoing struggle: 1984 - Part 2 . .

You are quite right about the times when Singh Sabha Movement was active, and also true till about 1930. After that time most of the ‘so called ”Sikh scholars” became supporters of either Congress party or Marxism.. Their focus became Indian Nationalism rather than the scholarship of Sikhism. For them Sikhi was not a religion, but just a social reform movement which needed to be given a new direction of secular nationalism (wherein religion had no place). However, majority community (Hindus), whether in Congress Party, Janta Party, or Communist Party continued to look at and promote the new direction linking with new “Hindu Rashter” - country based on Hindu ethos ( Though called a secular party, but the nationalism proposed by the Congress party , was still that of 'Hindu Nation' . When Mr. Jinah realised that (about 1930), he started asking for a separate territory for Muslims. Unfortunately at that time the Sikhs started to abandon the idea of Sikh homeland and started to follow Gandhi / Nehru leadership). I think, S.Ajmer Singh is talking about these Scholars. not of the ones from the time when Singh Sabha movement was popular. Most of the new breed of the scholars that S. Ajmer Singh is talking about were born after 1920.

Ajmer Singh Talks About The Role Played By Sikh Intellectuals in the Sikh Struggle

Press Conference By Simaranjit Singh Mann (July 10/11 ?), 2015 There is small difference in the videos, because of editorial editting by these two news channels. Talks about Sikh ElanNama of May 2, 1994. at the mass gathering at the Akal Takhat gathering and betrayal of Captain Amrinder Singh. Barnala and Badal. . And about that the Sikhs repressentatives on the committe to draft Indian Constitution in 1950 refused to sign the constititution.(by so doing rejected the constitution- Indian Constitution is imposed on Sikhs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu_ZIp2XURQ http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xnpno_simranjit-singh-mann-press-conference-2_news . http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xnpno_simranjit-singh-mann-press-conference-2_news . ..