3 Jathedars of Akal Takht Sahib is­su­ing 3 dif­fer­ent Mes­sages to the Sikhs, on the oc­ca­sion of Di­wali has fur­ther bam­boo­zled an al­ready con­fused com­mu­nity erod­ing the im­por­tance and sig­nif­i­cance of this unique in­sti­tu­tion set up by the sixth Mas­ter -Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib. May Akalpu­rakh shower wis­dom on the Sikhs to re­claim the glory of the Akal Takht Sahib!

Once upon a time in his­tory, the Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib -the provost of the Throne of the Almighty -the cus­to­dian of the sui-generis Sikh sov­er­eignty, used to stand at the por­tals of the mag­nif­i­cent and benev­o­lent fort-like ed­i­fice fac­ing the spir­i­tual cen­tre of Dar­bar Sahib, also known as the Golden Tem­ple, to ad­dress large sec­tions of a thinly-pop­u­lated as­sem­bly of the Sikh na­tion, on Di­wali and Baisakhi, the com­mu­nity was all ears, lis­ten­ing and im­bib­ing with rapt at­ten­tion, faith and fer­vour, seek­ing and fol­low­ing the re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal path pro­claimed from there.

Af­ter four cen­turies, the Sikh com­mu­nity in its wis­dom or lack of it, has re­duced the mean­ing and re­spect of this unique in­sti­tu­tion of tem­po­ral and spir­i­tual sov­er­eignty pro­pounded by its founder -the Sixth Mas­ter -Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib.

Yes­ter­day, on the oc­ca­sion of Di­wali and Bandi Chorr Di­was, 3 Jathedars gave out 3 mes­sages to the Sikh na­tion, al­ready con­fused and bam­boo­zled to the hilt. Di­wali is the Hindu fes­ti­val of lights and Sikhs have adapted it as the Bandi-Chorr Di­was -to mark the re­lease of 52 Hindu kings by Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib along­side him­self from the fort of Gwalior where Em­peror Ja­hangir had im­pris­oned them.

“No Light en­ter­ing the con­scious­ness, no pris­oner free­ing from the cage, the trans­ac­tional world keeps say­ing Happy Di­wali. With­out the oil, how can I light the lamp? With­out the sov­er­eignty, how can I en­able free­dom?”

Harinder Singh, Thinker and Writer Sikh Re­search In­sti­tute, USA

Gi­ani Harpreet Singh -the act­ing Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib, re­cently ap­pointed by the SGPC read his mes­sage from the ram­parts of the Akal Takht Sahib amidst ruckus cre­ated by a sec­tion of the San­gat who said, “we do not recog­nise you as Jathedar.” His mes­sage ex­tolling the Sikh con­cept of Chardikala and Sar­bat da Bhala -wel­fare for all hu­man­ity, echoes the po­lit­i­cal agenda of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Badal be­ing now pur­sued by the party re­lat­ing to jus­tice for vic­tims of No­vem­ber 1984 geno­cide. It urges the Sikhs to start mak­ing prepa­ra­tions for the 550 years of the Birth an­niver­sary of Guru Nanak Sahib. The con­tent and the de­liv­er­ance were hardly in­spir­ing. 

Bhai Jag­tar Singh Hawara, who was ap­pointed Jathedar by the Sar­bat Khalsa in 2015, has sent his mes­sage from the Ti­har Jail in New Delhi. This mes­sage steeped in Sikh his­tory, calls for re­claim­ing Sikh so­cial, eco­nomic, re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal sov­er­eignty and to­wards this end seeks Pan­thic unity. The mes­sage ap­peals for sac­ri­fice of jeal­ousy, egos and per­sonal in­ter­ests at the al­tar of the Pan­thic cause. How? When? Who will ini­ti­ate is what the Sikhs are look­ing for to­day!

Bhai Dhian Singh Mand, who was ap­pointed the Act­ing Jathedar by the Sar­bat Khalsa in 2015, to of­fi­ci­ate in place of Bhai Jag­tar Singh Hawara has is­sued an­other mes­sage from the midst of the Bar­gari Mor­cha, which has en­tered its sixth month. Jathedar Mand’s mes­sage is pri­mar­ily a jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Bar­gari Mor­cha where none is re­quired. What the mes­sage does not tell us is that where was the grand hurry to is­sue a mes­sage when Jathedar Hawara had al­ready is­sued a mes­sage a day ear­lier? 

What is deeply sad­den­ing is that none of the mes­sages have any call or prayer with which the or­di­nary folk can iden­tify with. Three-fourths of the mes­sages con­tain his­tory and the oth­ers are only a nar­ra­tion of cur­rent events. They are all unin­spir­ing. 

“Every Sikh is re­spon­si­ble for the cur­rent mess and we need to come out of this stale­mate at the ear­li­est.”

Gi­ani Ke­wal Singh, for­mer Jathedar Takht Damdama Sahib

Con­tem­po­ra­ne­ously speak­ing, Sikhs have never let them­selves down so badly.  This is a re­lay race gone ter­ri­bly wrong. The ba­ton holder is go­ing be­yond the next player and at­tempt­ing to reach the fin­ish­ing line him­self.

Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­warpal Singh, dis­traught at the turn of events, in a state­ment to the me­dia has said, “The three mes­sages have mocked the com­mu­nity. The role of the Jathedar is to unite the com­mu­nity, not dis­unite them. These par­al­lel set of Jathedars have be­come in­stru­men­tal in dis­unity Sikhs and that is deeply dis­turb­ing and painful.”

Though not re­fer­ring to the di­chotomy of the Jathedars, Harinder Singh of the Sikh Re­search In­sti­tute, USA, re­act­ing to the “Happy Di­wali” wishes, has re­torted, “ No Light en­ter­ing the con­scious­ness, no pris­oner free­ing from the cage, the trans­ac­tional world keeps say­ing Happy Di­wali. With­out the oil, how can I light the lamp? With­out the sov­er­eignty, how can I en­able free­dom?”

The cur­rent sit­u­a­tion has un­der­mined the sig­nif­i­cance and role of the Akal Takht Sahib in re­solv­ing dis­putes and cre­ation of an en­vi­ron­ment in which Sikhs of dif­fer­ent hues and shades can come to­gether to de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally evolve largely ac­cept­able so­lu­tions. For the pre­sent, this seems a dis­tant dream, un­less there is a big change of heart. Chances of that hap­pen­ing on ei­ther side of the spec­trum ap­pear grim. Con­fu­sion con­founded!

“The three mes­sages have mocked the com­mu­nity. The role of the Jathedar is to unite the com­mu­nity, not dis­unite them. These par­al­lel set of Jathedars have be­come in­stru­men­tal in dis­unity Sikhs and that is deeply dis­turb­ing and painful.”

Kan­warpal Singh, Spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa

Gi­ani Ke­wal Singh, for­mer Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib, while speak­ing about the role and work­ing of Akal Takht Sahib says, “The Akal Takht Sahib is not a Gur­d­wara, it is much more than that. It is time to re­vive the glo­ri­ous tra­di­tion of in­still­ing a sense of pride for the dis­play of mar­tial arts in the fore­ground of the Akal Takht Sahib.”  “Every Sikh is re­spon­si­ble for the cur­rent mess and we need to come out of this stale­mate at the ear­li­est.” he added. 

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May the sav­iour of the Takht of Miri-Piri be­stow good sense and en­able the Sikhs to once again re­claim the glory of Akal Takht Sahib and make them be­come true in­her­i­tors of “the state within a state” which has his­tor­i­cally ren­dered awe and fear amongst those in­im­i­cal to the Sikh na­tion!