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"If you are not with me, you are against me"
Simranjit Singh Mann and Bhai Daljit
Singh released on bail
Jagmohan Singh
What should Simranjit
Singh Mann and Bhai Daljit Singh do? Give up? No. It is time for
this leadership to consolidate their ranks and continue to raise the
voice of reason and conscience. There is no doubt that this is
likely to make them prisoners of conscience. In an unfair and unjust
world, it is a price that will have to be paid because even the
Indian judiciary is biased and unfair.
It does not call for celebration, but it
is a welcome relief that the two leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal
(Amritsar) – Simranjit Singh Mann and Bhai Daljit Singh have been
released on bail this week. Thrown behind bars by a hypersensitive
administration, these two leaders were detained on charges of
sedition.
"If you are not with me, you are against me" is the state policy
today. Simranjit Singh Mann opposed the public exposition of the
statue of the late chief minister Beant Singh, who came to power in
a fudged election with less than 8 percent votes and extra judicially
killed hundreds of Sikh youth. Bhai Daljit Singh, with other
leaders, built a campaign to oppose the blasphemous activities of
the Sirsa Sauda Dera.
The present Punjab government is a little over four months old and
of these, Simranjit Singh Mann has spent three in prison. How many
more he will spend is a matter of conjecture for the state is too
fickle-minded to handle any opposition. I not only refer to the
state of Punjab but the central government as well. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh is fortunate that almost the entire media is
supporting the 1-2-3 Nuclear deal with the United States and the
media is taking the left head-long for its opposition of the
proposed agreement. Simranjit Singh Mann has written to the
countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group opposing supplying India
with whatever nuclear material necessary for civil or material
activity citing reasons of inefficiency and suppression of ethnic
peoples by a stronger India. When will this be construed as sedition
by the babus and leaders in Delhi remains to be seen.
I fear that there will be numerous occasions in the future when
these two leaders will again be in the dock as the mindset is not
likely to show any change of thinking. The duo will oppose death
penalty to Sikh youth implicated in the assassination of Beant
Singh. Since his release from prison after 5 years in solitary
confinement in 1989, Simranjit Singh Mann has spent a good number of
years in prison under various governments as he is known to speak
his mind without fear or favour.
Today when I read that road trade between India and Central Asia
will begin through the Indo-Pak border, I could not help remember
that when Simranjit Singh Mann made this suggestion 15 years ago, he
was called names by the leadership of the present ruling party and
the Congress and the Bhartiya Janta Party had dubbed his call
seditious in nature.
Bhai Daljit Singh alongwith many others under the umbrella body of
the Khalsa Action Committee spearheaded a campaign against
pseudo-saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who had the temerity to parody the
attire and pioneering religious indoctrination of the tenth master,
Guru Gobind Singh. After continuous pressure of the Sikhs all across
the country, the Punjab government went for an inverse overkill.
Instead of taking stern action against him, a case was registered
against the megalomaniac Gurmeet but go slow tactics were adopted.
 On the day he committed the misdemeanour, I could not help remember
the afternoon of 13 April, 1978. The present chief minister of
Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal had been invited by the Sikhs of Bombay
for Baisakhi celebrations. I was part of the Sangat gathered in the
pandal of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Dadar. While the function was
on, we heard on radio that 13 Sikhs had been attacked by the neo-Nirankaris.
A few hours later, while Badal was still in Bombay, we heard that
the police and administration had ensured that the perpetrator of
the crime, Baba Gurbachan had been escorted out of Punjab.
Questions that crossed my mind then as a student activist and that
which bother the likes of Bhai Daljit Singh and others of the Khalsa
Action Committee are: Why was permission given to Baba Gurbachan to
hold an anti-Sikh function in the heart of the holy city of Amritsar
in 1978 and why was Baba Gurmeet allowed to taunt the Sikhs near the
holy city of Talwandi Sabo in 2007? Any one who seeks to answer
questions like these, questioning the integrity of the Akali
leaders, their supporting parties, the role of the Congress, the
state administration and the police is likely to be dubbed a
traitor.
The scion of the Badal clan, Sukhbir Singh Badal was present at
Fatehgarh Sahib when Bhai Daljit Singh and some others are supposed
to have raised anti-India and pro-Sikh state slogans. He saw and
heard what went on there. At one time he was in the same room as all
the leaders of the Khalsa Action Committee. What he could not
perhaps digest was that while he was traversing the historic roads
of Fatehgarh city ensconced in a jeep, some Sikh youth had raised
slogans against him as had forced the religious leadership to
backtrack from their proposed march to the offices of the Governors
of Punjab and Haryana respectively.
As you can see, it is a clash of interests Reasons of state versus
Sikh interests. Vested personal interests versus the interests of
the Sikh people. Personal leadership versus the collectivity of the
Khalsa.
What should Simranjit Singh Mann and Bhai Daljit Singh do? Give up?
No.
It is time for this leadership to consolidate their ranks and
continue to raise the voice of reason and conscience. There is no
doubt that this is likely to make them prisoners of conscience. In
an unfair and unjust world, it is a price that will have to be paid
because even the Indian judiciary is biased and unfair. One judicial
official of the Punjab and Haryana High Court while dealing with the
bail cases remarked, "aise logon ko andar hi rehna chahiye" --such
people should always remain behind bars."
22 August, 2007
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