proactive

Sometimes to get what you want you need play the political game. Dhian Singh Mand is at present just the acting Jathedar, Pinderpal Singh should accept only if he can get concessions from the Badals and with the agreement of Bhai Dhian Singh Mand. By asking him to become Jathedar then they have clearly realised that they are finished and are desperate. So Pinderpal Singh should make it clear that he is only the acting Jathedar and the REAL Jathedar is Bhai Jarnail Singh Hawara. This makes the credibility of Bhai Hawara as the Akal Takht Jathedar especially among those Sikhs who are not with Badal but need convincing that the right decision was taken at the Sarbat Khalsa. He should also demand that the SGPC accept the other Jathedars announced at the Sarbat Khalsa as the real Jathedars. Also all Sikhs arrested in the agitation in the last few months should be released unconditionally. The murderers of the two Sikhs at Kot Kapura to be arrested and their cases fast tracked. With Pinderpal Singh as Jathedar then the Baisakhi 2016 Sarbat Khalsa can take place at Akal Takht and the movement progressed further. If he can get this then the Panth will have won a great victory.

This meeting will be seen as a massive blunder by the SCUK. The only winner out of this has been Modi who will use the meeting to show that whereas the Akalis are getting slapped around when they go abroad, he has the respect of the Sikh community. This will also not play well with Sikhs in Punjab who see Modi as Badal's master and they will be left confused and betrayed because the Sikhs abroad who had shown how it is possible to take on Badal's dogs are now holding meetings with Badal's master. The ONLY reason that a meeting should have been held is if concessions from Modi had been forthcoming and agreed BEFOREHAND. i.e release of Sikh political prisoners which is the most important issue for the last year now. Then the SCUK could have shown that they have got concessions from India and the release of Sikh political prisoners would have been welcomed as a second victory with the first one being the success of the Sarbat Khalsa. But all these f.ools got was a couple of photos and Modi's bombay mix. They have shown how totally unsuitable they are for any leadership role in the Sikh community. Malhi needs to be kicked out of Gurdwara committee in the next elections.

Dude you won't get any takers here and among the majority of Sikhs for your Hindutva BS. We know who our enemies are and Modi being the PM of India has joined the list. You are right he has helped Hindu and Sikh refugees from Afghanistan settle in India but we look at the larger picture. I doubt that if there were no Hindus among the Afghan refugees and just Sikhs that he would have done this just for the Sikhs. With Sikhs who want freedom from the artificial state called India, Modi won't get any kudos because Modi is just seen as a temporary gatekeeper able to decide whether Sikh refugees can come to India, in essence we we get Khalistan then any Sikh of whatever ethnic background should be free to live as long as they want in Punjab. For the refugees from Afghanistan, the Sikhs were allowed because they were in the same situation as the Hindus. Once he did it for the Hindus then he had to include Sikhs in there as well. He also set up a resettlement package for Hindu Pandits and recently in order to win elections in Bihar he announced a 1.25 lakh crore package to Bihar and yet what has he given to Punjab where the Punjabi farmer is reeling from the worst agarian crisis that Punjab has suffered in its history? Modi has also given a financial package to J&K but nothing for Punjab.

This is what a real Gurdwara should be like, providing accommodation and spiritual uplift to those in the greatest need. imagine if this could be replicated around all hospitals, medical centres etc in Punjab and other places where there is a Sikh population. http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/sewa-at-guru-s-home-prompts-them-to-embrace-sikhism/story-LbCUC4Fp5GdvDzGfu0kEIP.html Sewa at guru’s home prompts them to embrace Sikhism Tanbir Dhaliwal, Hindustan Times, Chandigarh | Updated: Oct 23, 2015 09:52 IST Baptised Sikh Gopal Singh from Bihar at the gurdwara in PGI. (Gurpreet Singh/HT Photo) Share 119 Share 19 Share Share A long beard, a saffron turban and a kirpan slung across his shoulder, its khakhi strap looking distinct in the kurta — for anyone meeting him for the first time, Gopal Thakur looks like any other Sikh from the region. It’s only when he speaks that you can sense a distinct accent. The 40-year-old labourer, performing “sewa” at Gurdwara Partakh Darshan on the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) campus, came to Chandigarh from Bhagalpur district in Bihar. Admitted to the PGIMER with severe chest pain last year, Gopal took shelter at the gurdwara and started doing “sewa”. A year on, the man who came here as a Hindu is leaving as a baptised Sikh: Gopal Singh. Converted to Sikhism to lead a “dignified life”, Gopal says: “I feel good while doing ‘sewa’ at the gurdwara, and being a Singh, I am respected more.” Gopal is not the only one. Many Hindu and Dalit men, women and even children who had come to the PGIMER for treatment have converted to Sikhism during their stay here. Most are migrant workers hailing from far-flung states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir or from the neighbouring country Nepal, who take shelter at the gurdwara in absence of “sarais” for patients and their attendants. Other than free food and shelter, needy patients and their attendants are given lessons on the teachings of Sikh gurus. The gurdwara has not only changed their life but identity and outlook as well. From Devi to Kaur Anandi Devi, aka Pooja Kaur, came to the PGIMER two years back for the treatment of her son, who was hurt in an accident. “Priests at the gurdwara helped me during my difficult time and allowed me to stay here with my child. I do ‘sewa’ at the gurdwara and for it I am paid `2,000 every month,” says Pooja. Sitting in another corner of the gurdwara, 19-year-old Rajesh Kumar, who hails from Muradabad, is learning to tie a turban. “I was brought here after meeting with an accident. After undergoing treatment here, I chose to stay back at the gurdwara. Now, I am planning to embrace Sikhism,” he says. Rajinder Kumar is yet another example of a person who was touched by the love and affection received at the gurdwara. Hailing from Nepal, Rajinder came to the PGIMER way back in 1990. Today, he is settled here. “I had spine tuberculosis. The gurdwara helped me; people here gave me shelter and funded my treatment. They offered me a job. I got married in the same gurdwara and decided to convert,” says Rajinder. Teenager girl’s unfulfilled wish The youngest patient who the HT came across at the gurdwara was 14-year-old Shikha Bhardwaj from Darbhanga district in Bihar. She was suffering from uterus cancer and was undergoing treatment since January this year. Shikha had enrolled for a visit to Anandpur Sahib to embrace Sikhism and had shared her plans too: “My parents have sold all their property to fund my treatment. We do not have any other place to go. So, we stay at the here. Moreover, I feel good while doing ‘sewa’; it gives me some hope.” Unfortunately, she could not survive cancer. Baba Tarsem Singh, a “kar sevak” at the gurdwara says: “We saw that many people were getting cured by doing ‘sewa’. Many patients pray here for quick recovery. Looking at people’s faith, we thought of spreading awareness about the importance of a Guru.” The gurdwara has organised three trips to Anandpur Sahib in the last six months; wherein nearly 100 people embraced Sikhism.

Modi is the common enemy for all the minorities of India. It is short sighted to just think that just because the Muslims were Modi's targets in 2002 then we should not be against Modi. The fact is that Modi is anti-Sikh and he proved that just recently by his victimisation and discrimination against the Sikhs settled in Kutch. The state government lost the case against the Sikh farmer and yet still took it to appeal in the Supreme Court. What more proof is there that Modi has it in for the Sikhs? He knows how his treatment of Sikhs will affect the way Sikhs perceive him in Punjab yet he still went ahead with the appeal. he had a chance to withdraw that appeal prior to the election but he did not care about the Sikhs so again did not withdraw the case. As I said, all minorities are in danger under Modi, he has even pi.ssed off the Nepalese with his behaviour of interference in their internal affairs. If he can interfere in Nepal that what would stop him interfering in Punjab in future. Modi is a lame duck, his political honeymoon is over, he is unlikely to win any state elections in the next few years and so cannot get a majority in the Rajya Sabha which means that he basically needs to rely on other parties to pass legislation. Just as Modi is getting weaker and weaker the Panthic parties are getting stronger in Punjab. The more pressure that can be put on Modi the better, his visit will no doubt be presented as some kind of victory but all his visit has shown to the western world is that Modi is a criminal and that their leaders are willing to do deals with mass murderers for economic benefit.

I also used to think that Mann's party is finished but the way they and the other Panthic organisations were able to organise and manage the Sarbat Khalsa has given that party a new lease of life. Sikhs were already in two minds whether they would have to rely on a party like AAP with it's use of the odious slogan of 'jai hind' and the Nehru topi in order to bring Punjab out of the clutches of the Badals. The Sarbat Khalsa has now given the Panthic Sikhs a new hope, either SAD (Amritsar) or a new Panthic party composed of all the Panthic jathebandis. The Sarbat Khalsa and the mass attendance there has united the Panth and it is now up to the Panth to take all the opportunities that the next five years present. 1. Baisakhi 2016 Sarbat Khalsa - The attendance here will be much more than the recent Sarbat Khalsa. Those who kept away solely because they thought the state would use violence to stop the recent one will definitely want to attend this one. Even those who were cynical of the whole idea will have been swept away by the emotion of seeing lakhs of Sikhs united in defence of the Guru and the Panth. If the Panth now stays united I have no doubt that the Baisakhi Sarbat Khalsa will be able to get upwards to a million Sikhs attending. This then creates a momentum for the next major date in the calendar. 2. 2016 SGPC elections. Although the Supreme Court has stopped the members who won in 2011 taking charge and Badal has only half heartedly opposed this because both houses were packed with his yes men anyway. But if the SGPC elections were held today then there is no doubt that the Panthic candidates would win a majority. This would be especially easy if the Baisakhi 2016 Sarbat Khalsa has a resolution that a committee of eminent Sikhs will be constituted to choose candidates with impeccable Panthic credentials to fight in the SGPC elections. 3. 2017 Punjab Assembly elections. With the SGPC elections won and with the anti-Badal factor among all Punjabis then the Panthic candidates will have the best opportunity since 1991 Punjab elections to win power and form a true Panthic sarkar. 4. 2020 Referendum. Sikhs for Justice have to commended for this movement. Although some have been quite cynical about this movement citing the fact that no Indian govt would allow such a referendum, this has actually got quite a lot of support from common Sikhs both in Punjab and abroad. What the Panthic govt elected in 2017 needs to do is first clear the corruption that Badal had bought to Punjab and then also to work towards this referendum.

It looks like an attack by either IS or Al Qaeda, apparently one of the attackers shouted Allah Hu Akbar. It is probably IS behind this as they have openly stated that they will any country which is bombing them in Syria and France is one of the countries that is bombing Syria. Russia started to do the same a few months ago and they lost a passenger jet soon after allegedly to a bomb on board. IS had made statements for the last year that it would bring death and destruction to Europe and earlier this year they said that they would use the refugee flows into Europe to send their Jihadis into Europe. Merkel is probably having nightmares having invited over a million refugees without any prior vetting into Germany in the last few months. I think there will be more and more terrorist attacks in Europe thus causing tensions among the different communities. Sikhs need to be careful because as usual we will get confused with the adherents of the religion of 'peace'

The Wembley event is a publicity stunt paid for by corporates and Indian organisations who will then get access to the Indian market in return. It is a free entry event full of Gujaratis, if it had been an entrance fee event no one of those kanjoos gujjus would have turned up. Cameron has outdone himself by becoming a lap dog of Modi. If Blair was a lap dog of Bush then Cameron is becoming a lap dog of every dictator around. I am sure that even Cameron's supporters will be dismayed at how he has been acting like a star struck schoolgirl around Modi. Cameron announced today that a cold blooded murderer had been killed by a missile strike, before I caught Jihadi John's name I thought the Americans had shot a cruise missile into Wembley!

The massive success of the Sarbat Khalsa which has shaken the establishment both in Punjab and India is bound to bring out all sorts of negative opinion whose only aim is to keep the Sikhs in India in their present state of slavery. This is the aim of the writer of the article. This writer obviously has no understanding of democracy. Does any parliament ask the opinion of each and every citizen before their representatives vote on a particular piece of legislation? The fact is by attending the Sarbat Khalsa the Sikhs has already expressed their confidence in the leadership of the organisers of the event. It may have been possible to deliberate on the resolutions but is there anyone among the organisers who would have opposed any of the resolutions? In fact the Sarbat Khalsa went beyond democracy because the participants were able to vote their approval for the resolutions something which never happens in any democracy. To compare the Sarbat Khalsa to a Khap Panchayat shows the bias of the writer. If that is the case then the Indian parliament is less than a Khap panchayat because there is a lesser level of individual citizen participation than there is in a Khap Panchayat. I think what irks the article writer is that the event was so peaceful. He and his masters would have loved nothing more than seeing Sikhs arguing, Kirpans being drawn and dastars being knocked off. He could then have written a piece about how the Sarbat Khalsa was just a show by militants which erupted in violence. The TV stations would then have shown the footage of the violence just as they constantly did of the footage of the June scuffles at Harmandir Sahib and the Sikh movement for freedom would have been set back another decade. The writer displays his extreme ignorance in trying to separate the Badal regime from the Indian government. They are not separate entities but two closely interlinked power structures. It has to be noted that the Indian government before the Badal brand of Akalis took power in 1997 never allowed an Akali Dal government to complete it's full term in office. Has has completed two full terms before his present term because it suits the Indian government whether it the Congress or BJP in power a corrupt government like Badal's in power as long as he clamps down on Sikh aspirations for freedom. The last line of the above quote shows where the thought pattern of the writer is at fault, he has no problem with Badal (mis)using religion for his own ends but if the Sikhs then use their religion institutions such as Sarbat Khalsa to fight Badal's misuse then that is a problem for the writer. The Sikhs are now a global religion then is right that the voice of the Sarbat Khalsa be also heard in the main global language. This is a comment that will be increasing used by the opponents of the Sikhs and their Sikh quislings, that any attempt to achieve freedom for the Sikhs will result in the Sikhs suffering the same violence as the 1980s and the partition. This will be used to scare Sikhs into accepting their second class status in India and stifle any attempt at betterment of the Sikhs from that status. If we accept this, then in essence we accept that the state violence used by India in the 1980s has worked and that India is not a state in existence for a mere 68 years that is liable to territorial adjustment but a state whose integrity is set in stone and eternal and anyone who challenges this can justifiably expect a violent response even if he himself is non-violent. The organisers have not ghettoised anything, they have given a long and violently suppressed expression of Sikh freedom a new lease of life.

Sikh farmers in Kutch, not prosecuting the murderers of Sikhs in 1984, propping up Badal who is the biggest enemy of the Sikhs, being a former member of the RSS which denies that Sikhs have a separate identity. How many other reasons do you need, just the first reason is enough to show how anti-Sikh he is.

When people become so corrupt and detached from the people they pretend to serve, they become a victim of their own lies and propaganda. The sad fact is that the id.iot in charge of what was once the most influential and representative Sikh body believes that he is fighting for the Panth and those who have given their lives and lost their liberty for the welfare of the Panth are Congress stooges!!

The arrests are just the last throes of a dying Badal government. The so-called master politician has misjudged the mood of Punjab in the last few months. In 2012 he successfully tagged his boat on to the movement to save Bhai Rajoana and was spared the direct attacks that would have ensued had he remained aloof. But he has lost his touch in the last few months. He washed his hands off the agitation to free the Sikh political prisoners making blanket statements that he could do nothing and basically telling lies that the state government can do nothing in this case. Badal misjudged the Sarbat Khalsa, he must have spent many crores bribing those so-called Panthic leaders (Dhumma, Jasbir Singh Rodel) from attending the Sarbat Khalsa and he staked everything on the Sarbat Khalsa being a failure with poor attendance so that they could claim that it was a meeting of a handful of radicals. Even the biased media, mainly because of social media, could not hide the fact that it was a mammoth event. What use is it for him now to arrest Sardar Mann and the other organisers, if anything Mann's stature has increased a hundred fold just because of the Sarbat Khalsa. The arrests just show how desperate the Badal Akalis are becoming. Apparently the junior tyrant is organising so-called sadbhavna rallies in the near future and it would be interesting to see what kind of response they get.

You are right, but Dhumma still controls Gurdwara Gurdarshan Parkash at Chowk Mehta. Liberating it from such a gaddar should be on the agenda of the movement now.

You are right they were blessed as were all attendees. Shame on those so-called leaders like Dhumma who by not attending has blackened his face and brought controversy to the Panthic institution which was headed by the greatest Sikh shaheed of the 20th century.

The Sarbat Khalsa has actually highlighted the very disturbing situation where two so-called Sikhs have acted as the biggest enemies of their own people. It was for the Akal Takht jathedars of the 80s and 90s to excommunicate them but because Longowal, Tohra and Badal were at the helm of Sikh affairs no such action was taken. What the Sarbat Khalsa has done is to give a voice and act on the feelings of all true Sikhs that these two should publically declare that what they did was wrong or face death having been very publically denounced by the Sarbat Khalsa and excommunicated from the Panth.

The Tribune states that 1 lakh but knowing how biased their reporting is then I am sure it was many times that number. One thing we all need to do is to congratulate the organisers. Badal did his best to prevent people attending and there are reports that the police stopped people on the roads and forced them to return home. So had there not the obstacles then close a million may have attended. The Sarbat Khalsa had everything going against it. Some claiming to supporting it and then pulling out. The media did it's best to spread misinformation and misrepresent the Sarbat Khalsa terming the organisers as radicals and hard liners. Badal's dogs also tried to spread mischief, one Youth Akali Dal Badal id.iot was on FB stating that because the RSS was supporting the Sarbat Khalsa then he was against it. So-called intellectuals in the pay of Badal were attacking the Sarbat Khalsa because they claimed that it could only be called by the Akal Takht jathedar and only at Akal Takht. There were also rumours spread by the Badals no doubt that something terrible would occur at the Sarbat Khalsa and many people might get killed. So given all this to manage to get many lakhs of Sikhs to attend and to manage the arrangements goes to the credit of the organisers. Such a gathering even a month ago would have been deemed impossible. Badal would have used his police to round up the organisers and the police would have used violence against the people travelling to the Sarbat Khalsa and it would all have ended in embarrassment. But starting from the 2012 Punjab Bandh in support of Rajoana Punjab has slowly but surely lost its fear of the evil Badal family. As Lenin once said " There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen" This is exactly what we have seen in Punjab in the last few weeks. The two decades 1995-2015 is where nothing substantial in the Panth has happened but the last few weeks has shown that the Sikh nation has finally woken up.

A collection of regional and dalit parties have just ripped Modi a new arse*ole in the Bihar elections so this kind of jingoistic nonsense is used to deflect peoples' attention from the real issues. What the Sikh organisations should be doing is offering help to the defence in this case in order to stop the theft of the Koh-i-noor again this time by the extremist Indian government.

I think you people need to back off and stop your personal attacks on Jagsaw Singh. I don't always agree with him but that doesn't mean that his views are any less important than other members. The Indian uncle Tom who thinks India is so great would do well to read up on what happened to the Sikhs 31 years ago this week.

This is all part of Badal's gameplan. He knows that he can't used police violence to stop the Sarbat Khalsa as support for it is near universal among Sikhs. This just shows just how much Punjab has changed from even a month ago when Sukhbir Badal thought he could stop and opposition to the Badals by murdering a two Sikhs with impunity. Badal wants the common Sikhs now to change their views about the Sarbat Khalsa by getting his RSS masters to support the Sarbat Khalsa so that Sikhs will believe that the opposition to his rule is from anti-Panthic forces. The <banned word filter activated> has used the slogan 'Panth in danger' to get into power and will use the same slogan to stay in power when the truth is that the he is the greatest danger that the Panth faces. The Dhumma led Sant Samaj has come out against Sarbat Khalsa but using the circular argument that it should only be held at Akal Takht when they know that the SGPC will never allow it there and Badal will use his full force to start a blood bath there. If any Sikhs affiliated to Taksal wanted any more proof that Dhumma is a sell out then they can't get any more proof than that. If they then still follow the sell out Dhumma then I am sorry but no matter how Panthic you think you are, you are enemy an of the Panth and no better than the corrupt Badal Akalis. Badal is also using the so-called Sikh intellectuals, those who think much but do precious little in life. If the religious leadership like the SGPC have failed Sikhs in recent years than the intellectuals doubly so. They have also started to question the Sarbat Khalsa and taking part in Badal's gameplan.

You are right. Sikhs in the UK are woefully lacking in understanding how politics works in the west. We criticise the Sikhs of Punjab when Badal gets elected to power and yet we have a Congressi Hindu as the MP of the most prominent Sikh constituency in London. Leave that aside, we cannot even get a Panthic minded committee into the largest Gurdwara in Europe. We go from an openly sell out committee to a candestine sell out committee. The Sikhs in Canada also have their sell out so-called moderate Sikhs but in the last decade they have effectively marginalised these sell outs. Panthic minded committees mainly of youth sewadars have been successful in winning power in the Gurdwaras. Panthic minded Sikhs have also gained a foothold in the political parties there. One of the worst defeats that the moderates suffered was when they attempted to stop the selection of Harjit Singh Sajjan and put in a sell out moderate they were snubbed and like little children they started to resign en mass from the Liberal party. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/b-c-sikhs-quit-liberals-to-protest-justin-trudeau-s-star-candidate-1.2866343

Sikhs can't sit by and see the country which has the largest population of Sikhs turned into a Hindu state. I don't know where you get the idea that he respects and values Sikhi? Maybe you watched some of his speeches but actions not words are what shows the true feelings of a person. Modi has been responsible for the ousting of Sikh farmers from Kutch. His government did not respect the Gujarat high court decision in favour of the Sikh farmers and appealed to the supreme court. This shows what his feeling are towards the Sikhs, Also Sikhs cannot be selective over which mass murderer we are opposed to. Modi might not have been complicit in the killings of Sikhs like he is for the killing of Muslims but after the Muslims are dealt with how will Modi pick on next? Let's think ahead. Modi came to power in a powerful but it is already waning. If the situation gets worst for him there is no doubt that he will engineer another et of riots in order united the Hindus and stay in power. This is the only way tactic that Indian politicians know to stay in power.

We are discussing the sells out who are welcoming the mass murderer Modi and not Badal. This small set of people are available to the Indian govt whenever they require Sikh faces for their propaganda. These sell outs will attend any Indian govt function which any decent self respecting Sikh would think twice before attending.

You are right, these sells outs and traitors do seem to be from one particular section of the Sikh community. Sukhbir Singh Kapoor runs the so-called World Sikh University in Harrow and in 1984 he wrote a book against the operation Bluestar and yet a decade later he was running off to India to receive some award from the Indian government. In fact in 1984 his family's journey to the protest against Bluestar operation in London in June 1984 was featured in a news report from that day. Most of these sell outs run organisations with big sounding names such as British Sikh Association, Guru Nanak International education trust etc and yet consist mostly of the same sell outs, one sell out is a general secretary in one organisation and the founder or patron of another and the trustee of another. This is a case with all their mickey mouse organisations. It is time that the general Sikh community take these sell outs to task and question what right they have to claim to be community 'leaders' and welcome a mass murderer on behalf of the Sikh community.

Seems like a Mod does not understand the way you used the n word which was a valid use but then to change it to "Jigsaw and I have no respect" is a bit childish.

Jigsaw Singh These are interesting statistics I think taken from the report in the website national crime records http://ncrb.gov.in/ What that report shows through its data tables and something that the HT misses are these facts that at the end of 2014. 1. Punjab with a population of 2.3% of India's population but had 7.29% of the total prisoners in jails in India. This means that Punjab has more prisoners than more populous states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu etc. This shows how oppressive the regime in Punjab is. Interesting enough the population of prisoners according to religion, Sikhs only make up 50% of the jail population in Punjab rather than the 57% as it should be according to the total population of Punjab. Hindus make up 42% of Punjab's prison population. 2. Convicts who are graduates, postgraduate or hold technical degree make up 19.5% of the prisoner population in Punjab jails. The national average for India is 8.72%. This means that more educated people are likely to be convicted in Punjab than in the rest of the country. A more telling indictment of the Badal regime in Punjab would be harder to find than the data in this report.