Sikhs Observe Martyrdom Week

In 2023, the Martyrdom Week when Sikhs pay homage to Guru Gobind Singh’s four Sahibzade (Sovereign’s sons) started on an odd note. On 22 Dec, Panjab Chief Minister Mann said mourning notes would be sounded on 27 Dec during the Shahidi Sabha (Martyrdom gathering). Mann missed the important distinction that Sikhs do not mourn the Sahibzade, they pay homage to their martyrdom. When faced with opposition, Mann withdrew his orders. On a positive note, after nearly 50 years, the Hindu Ghorewaha Kachwaha Rajput community representatives visited Chamkaur Sahib to relish their rich history with Guru Gobind Singh. After leaving  Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh fortified at Chamkaur Sahib where the historic battle was fought in December 1704. A small number of Sikhs took on the huge army of the Mughals and the hill kings. The Guru’s elder sons, Sahibzada Ajit Singh, 18 years, and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh, 14 years, were martyred. The fort belonged to Rai Budhi Chand whose descendants came down to pay homage. Rai Harendra Singh Ghorewaha thanked the SGPC for inviting them. Takht Damdama Sahib Talwandi Sabo Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh said, ‘Hill kings took an oath on the cow, and Mughal governors took an oath on the Quran, after which both sides reached an agreement that if Guru Gobind Singh left Anandpur Sahib, then there would be no war. They broke their oaths. But there were Muslims like Nabhi Khan and Ghani Khan and devotees like Rai Budhi Chand who came forward to serve Guru Gobind Singh. This part of history is important these days and needs to be relished when distorted historical interpretations are used to create a divide between communities.’

The Sikhs do not agree with the term the BJP-led Indian government has coined to mark the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s younger Sahibzade (Sovereign's sons) – Veer Baal Divas which means the ‘Day of Brave Kids.’ For Sikhs the sons, though young, are not kids but examples of great bravery and sacrifice – Babas, wise ones. On 26 Dec, Prime Minister Modi said the Sikh Gurus have taught Indians to live for the glory of their land and served as an inspiration to make the country better and more developed. ‘The Gurus gave us these teachings...we need to live for the country's pride and glory. We need to live for the betterment of the country.’ The sahibzade chose martyrdom for truth and sovereignty , not for the empire or country. This is an appropriation and repurposing of Sikh history to serve the interest of the Hindutva state. PM Modi even wrongly attributed a Kabir couplet to Guru Gobind Singh. In Uttar Pradesh, the Hindutva heartland, CM Yogi Adityanath announced that all places belonging to Sikh Gurus will be developed. This is a way of taking control of spaces associated with the Gurus. In keeping with the idea of ‘Veer Bal Divas,’ some schools performed plays in which they physically depicted the younger sahibzade Zorawar Singh, 9 years, and Fateh Singh, 6 years. This is also against the code of conduct in Sikhi to idolize. The SGPC has condemned the plays and asked the schools for an explanation.

On 21 Dec, 303 Indian passengers boarded a Legend Airlines' A340 flight operated by the Romanian company, Legend Airlines, in Dubai. The plane stopped in Vatry, France for refueling. At Varty, based on a tip-off that alleged the plane was carrying suspected victims of trafficking, the plane was grounded for four days. Finally, on 27 Dec, 276 passengers emerged from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. 27 passengers sought asylum in France. One-third of the passengers were from Gujarat and many were from Panjab. The passengers emerged from the airport with faces covered and were not allowed to meet the media. That silence persists for fear of action by authorities. A person named Shashi Kiran Reddy from Hyderabad seems to be the mastermind of the illegal human trafficking operation. Reddy was allegedly also the kingpin in the Dingucha case when on 19 Jan 2022 the bodies of Jagdish Patel (39), Vaishali (37), and their two children were discovered near Emerson, Manitoba, 12 meters from the Canada-US border. In this most recent case of the Legend Airlines flight, it is of grave concern that there were unescorted minors onboard, including a two-year-old. The flight incident gives credence to the fact that there is a lot of illegal migration from India, and human trafficking remains an issue. In SDW Vol. 1 Issue 8, Story 10, we reported that 97K Indians were apprehended for illegally entering the US between October 2022 and September 2023. Data from the Ministry of External Affairs show nearly 3,000 agencies in India known to have duped aspirants seeking employment abroad. The ministry received 682 complaints between January 2020 and November 2023. Panjab police have also formed a team to probe human trafficking.

A long pending grievance from Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Panjabis is that the state’s civil and legal processes are complex and often keep them entangled. NRIs have long demanded better mechanisms to help them work through civil cases, paperwork, and disputes. Chief Minister Mann has now unveiled the ‘NRI Panjab’ website, developed by the Governance Reforms department in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The platform encompasses detailed information related to the NRI Police wing, Punjab State Commission for NRIs, and NRI Sabha. Additionally, the website streamlines access to various facilities such as document attestation and access to government schemes. CM Mann underscored the website's commitment to convenience, offering a helpline number, email addresses, and a WhatsApp complaint number for visitors seeking assistance. The platform also provides information on registered travel and immigration agents, linking users to the centralized online complaint portal. While the online platform will be tested in days to come, the excitement around the elections for the post of president of the NRI Sabha Panjab has died down. Members who could not get their photo ID cards renewed in the last five years will not be allowed to cast votes. Sabha polling is scheduled for 5 Jan. Although there are 24,000 members, only about a 100 will be able to vote as only 25 members could get their cards renewed and 260 fresh members were enrolled in the last five years. Surely, the rules can be changed to engage more NRIs to vote and elect truly representative members.

Like some years in the past, in 2024 too Panjab’s tableau has not been included in the Republic Day parade. Unlike earlier, this time, on 28 Dec 2023, Panjab CM Mann hit out at the BJP-led central government and alleged the Center has discriminated against the state. He added both AAP government states – Panjab and Delhi – have been rejected. While India has 28 states and 8 union territories, there are only 15 slots for tableaux in the parade. It is common for a state to miss a chance for content or design reasons. However, under the current regime, the decisions could also be political. There could be a bias towards BJP-run states. In the past Bengal and Kerala have also been rejected. The state BJP President Sunil Jakhar responded saying AAP had planned to carry pictures of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, hence the selection committee had rejected the tableau. Delhi AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj called it an act of ‘revenge.’ The Centre hit back with allegations similar to Jakhar’s views. Mann replied. ‘We will station the tableau at Panjab Bhawan on 20 Jan 2024 and will parade it on Delhi’s streets.’ On 31 Dec 2023, Union Water Minister Gajendra Shekhawat said PM Modi conceptualized the Bharat Parv (Festival of India) platform at the Red Fort from 26-31 Jan 2024 to showcase those tableaux which could not make it to the Republic Day parade. He invited Panjab to participate in Bharat Parv.

On Dec 25, former DSGMC President Manjit Singh GK returned to SAD. GK returned to the fold after four years following an appeal by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal who visited his residence along with other senior leaders. ‘Unity is the need of the hour and it’s essential to resolve our pending issues, be it freedom for Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners), amendment to Article 25(2b), restitution of Sri Gian Godri Sahib and Sri Dongmar Sahib Gurdwaras, stopping interference in Shiromani committee affairs and dilution of Panjab’s right over Chandigarh,’ said GK, shortly after merging his Jago Party with the SAD. Badal repeated his apology (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 14, Story 9) over sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and stressed on Panthic unity while another former DSGMC President, Paramjit Singh Sarna, said that Sikhs will, otherwise, suffer the fate of the country’s Muslims. SAD also announced it will set up its party units in all States across the country that have a Sikh population. Badal condemned Panjab CM Mann over suggesting a mourning bugle to mark the young Sahibzade’s martyrdom. Earlier, on 24 Dec, after meeting with Badal, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami said land would be allotted for Gurdwara Sri Gian Godri Sahib at Haridwar. Dhami also said a resolution will soon be reached on 4,805 acres of land in Bazpur. However, with the just-released Jathedar Kaunke report, questions are once again being asked about SAD’s role in suppressing the report (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 15, Story 4). Unity among various Sikh political factions is the need of the hour and is indicative of consolidation of Sikh votes, but policy matters remain unresolved during their ruling terms in various political parties.

Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Indian Parliament on 19 Dec that Panjab saw the highest dropout rate (20.6%) among Class X students in northern states during the 2021-22 academic session. The rate was 9.5% in Jammu and Kashmir, 7.8% in Ladakh, 7.4% in Haryana, 2.5% in Himachal Pradesh and 1.3% in Delhi. Chandigarh recorded zero dropout rate for the four academic years from 2018-19 to 2021-22. Nationally, Odisha reported the highest rate of 49.9%, followed by Bihar at 42.1%. The national average stood at 20.6%, exactly the same as Panjab’s. In the health sector, the Center has denied Panjab a grant of $220M for 100 new clinics and another $49M loan. In early 2023, the AAP government renamed health centers and the SAD government instituted sewa kendras as ‘Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics.’ Sewa kendras were an initiative by the previous government to provide services such as Birth and Death Certificates, Caste Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Aadhaar Card and others in villages. The naming convention is a pun that adds the ruling party’s name to the clinics. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, on 9 Dec, said, ‘We can only give funds to the Panjab government for the implementation of schemes, which are run by the Union government. There are fixed guidelines to run any scheme.’ The Union government had raised strong objections to rebranding with photos of CM Mann being put on the premises.  A state dependent on Center’s funds cannot afford such promotion of a political party at the cost of the health of its citizens.

On 24 Dec, India's Vice President and Chancellor of Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, Jagdeep Dhankhar said colleges of Haryana should also be affiliated with Panjab University. Dhankhar was the chief guest at the Fourth Global Alumni Meet organized by the University Alumni Association. He said there are rumors of making PU a central university, but the central government has no such intention. He asked the alumni to come forward to help the university financially. The AAP government completely rejected the VP’s statement. AAP Panjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said that PU is a symbol of Panjab’s legacy and we have emotional, historic and constitutional right over it. ‘No Haryana College shall be granted an affiliation as no other state than Panjab has any right over PU.’ Dhankar’s statement could be a response to Panjab government’s Punjab Affiliated Colleges (Protection of Services) Amendment Bill, 2023 and the Punjab University Laws Amendment Bill, 2023 which seeks to remove the Governor as chancellor of state universities. These Bills were passed on 21 Jun 2023 but the Panjab governor has not yet given his assent to the Bills. Panjab University was established in 1882 in Lahore and an additional unit moved to India after 1947. Until 1966, Haryana was part of Panjab and its colleges were affiliated to the university. Once Haryana was carved out of Panjab, in 1973, the Ministry of Home Affairs notified that the university had ‘ceased to function and operate in the state of Haryana.’ For five decades, Haryana colleges have not been affiliated with the university and given the politics, it is impossible to turn the clock now unless there is unified Panjab that includes Haryana and Himachal are reconsidered which surfaced last week as well.

In Delhi, the victims of 1984 Sikh Genocide will get an enhanced compensation of $6,000. President of Dashmesh Sewa Society and Ex-Member of DSGMC Inder Mohan Singh informed that the Delhi government has invited applications for claims from those who had already received ex-gratia relief of $7,000 as per guidelines of Indian union Ministry of Home Affairs issued on 16 Jan 2006 but had not received enhanced compensation till date. Although the government has not fixed a last date for claiming this enhanced compensation, Singh said the beneficiaries should apply at the earliest. Meanwhile, on 21 Dec, the Member of Legislature from Jamshedpur East, Saryu Rai raised the issue of people killed in the 1984 Sikh genocide in Jharkhand Assembly. Rai is an independent MLA who was earlier in the BJP. The violence in Jharkhand which was earlier part of Bihar state is much less talked about than the violence in Delhi (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 6, Story 1). However, there was massive violence in the districts of Palamu, Ranchi, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, and Jamshedpur. Rai said, ‘The victim Sikh families have not yet been able to get justice due to the indifference of the previous governments and the obstacles created by the authorities.’ Rai was referring to the writ petition by Satnam Singh Gambhir in the Jharkhand High Court. The judge had constituted a one-member inquiry commission in 2016. The commission did not even visit many homes and recommended compensation to only 41 people.

Four years ago, the Indian government projected the Citizen Amendment Act, 2019 as the savior of Afghan Sikhs. Sadly, the reality is these Sikhs have converted Delhi and India into a place that issues them passports to travel to another country. Afghan Sikhs thus go through two uprootings — first from their homeland when the Taliban took control of the country, and the second from India, the country that rescued them but did not go much beyond that. In August 2021, when the Taliban took over Kabul and then large parts of Afghanistan, a batch of 24 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus landed in Delhi in an Indian Air Force plane. Among them were Narinder Singh Khalsa and Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, both members of the then Afghan Parliament and both representing the minority community. Subsequently, at least 300 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus were safely evacuated to Delhi in several batches in coordination with philanthropists, Sikh organizations, and NGOs. ‘India was like our second home. We never wanted to leave Delhi, but there was no employment, no means to survive,’ says Gurnam Singh. Nearly 350 Sikhs who were rescued by India from Afghanistan in August 2021 have now shifted to Canada in hope of a better future. Even a cursory visit to Delhi’s Afghan colonies shows us that while the migrants were welcomed better than 1991 onward when they first started coming in, finding a livelihood, making a living remains an uphill task. In the 1970s, the Sikhs in Afghanistan numbered between 200,000 and 500,000. Their population has dwindled since the Afghan wars began to less than a hundred now.