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Of A Party, A Portrait & Else
Quickly browsing through the hundreds of emails that the WSN
receives every week, it is surprising how well versed the Diaspora
Sikhs remain about happenings back home and the convulsions through
which the Sikh and Akali polity keeps going. In a single breath, one
reader asked what exactly was the purpose of the NRI Sammelan
planned by the Parkash Singh Badal government, and also wanted to be
educated about the brouhaha raised by political outfits in India
about the installation of a portrait of Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale. “And of course I presume your coming issue will have
some details about why Bhai Daljit Singh has chosen to stress the
rift within the party so strongly?” he wrote.
Exactly our point. Nothing in the life of a quom which is alive
to the concerns of the people happens in a vacuum. These, and all
other issues, are interlinked, and it is greatly appreciated at the
WSN that the Diaspora remains proactively engaged with the larger
spectrum of the concerns of the Sikhs.
At a time when politics in Punjab itself is becoming so
depoliticised that the ruling Akali Dal thinks it can survive by
surreptitiously changing its Constitution, assuming a secular avatar
overnight and escaping without the media taking any notice, it is
but natural for the few panthic forces to wake up and smell the
coffee. When Sardar Simranjit Singh Mann had risen in limelight,
public perception and among the adoring crowds of Sikhs, it was
hoped that he will prove to be the beacon light for the community.
For some time, he was. No one, certainly not the WSN, has ever
denied the personal sacrifices made by Sardar Mann, but
unfortunately, political parties cannot survive on the basis of old
news clippings. Running a political party, that too, a party which
has a mission and an agenda as big as the larger objective of the
Sikh quom, requires continuous innovation and ability to evolve with
the times. Throwing up a regular pool of new leadership and creating
a multi-layer structure of command and control is the basic premise
for such a forum. That Sardar Mannfailed in this, and instead
tried to foist autocratic decisions, will be stating the obvious.
That Bhai Daljit Singh seems to have learnt from the mistakes made
by the coterie around Sardar Mann is heartening. One only hopes that
he takes the Presidium-led party further and exhibits an ability to
accommodate while remaining steadfastly committed to the stated
aims.
The furore over Sant Bhindranwale’s portrait would never have
happened had men like Sardar Mann and parties like the Shiromani
Akali Dal (Amritsar) stuck to the stated course and gotten the
backing of the community. When one’s own house in not in order, even
clowns of Indian politics like the Shiv Sena-Bajrang Dal ruffians
think they have the guts to issue threats publicly. One of the
remarkable ways in which one’s stature is known is the measure of
one’s enemies. We hope Sardar Mann will take time out and study this
fact of political demography.
Keeping in view the composition of the Punjabi Diaspora, the WSN
has taken up in this issue the cause of the particular section of
the emigrants which is almost always ignored. We did so because
being Sikhs, and the WSN being a Sikh community newspaper, no issue
is more dear to us than any that concerns the underdog, the
disadvantaged, the kirti who earns his honest living through hard
work. If our entertainment page takes great umbrage at a Hindi film
song, it is the same feeling. At WSN, just as among the Diaspora, or
rather, just as in life, everything is interwoven with a thing
called ideology.
5 December 2007
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