The Ed­i­tor, The World Sikh News writes a com­pre­hen­sive Open Let­ter to Gi­ani Gur­bachan Singh -Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib, elab­o­rat­ing the gen­e­sis of the is­sue re­lat­ing to the par­don by the Sikh re­li­gious lead­er­ship to blas­phe­mous pseudo-saint cultist- Gur­mit Ram Rahim Singh, who has and con­tin­ues to the chal­lenge the fun­da­men­tals of Sikh re­li­gious ethos. He seeks im­me­di­ate re­ver­sal of the de­ci­sion and a de­ter­mined ef­fort by the Khalsa Com­mon­wealth to undo the dam­age, should the re­li­gious lead­er­ship fail to do so.

Re­spected Jathedar Sahib Ji
Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh!

The life and times of the Sikhs is go­ing through a se­ri­ous meta­mor­pho­sis. Sikhs are con­fused about their sta­tus and des­tiny. They are more ma­te­ri­al­is­tic to­day than ever be­fore. The var­i­ous di­vi­sion­ary trends –in the Sikh world on the re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal spec­trum are in­creas­ing by the day. Very few re­al­ize the ex­tent of the dam­age and those who do, are stuck in their own their own un­bend­ing cal­cu­la­tions and stances.

The re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship of the Sikhs is vir­tu­ally non-ex­is­tent. Willy-nilly, we are en­gaged in a self-de­struc­tive cam­paign of un­der­min­ing and den­i­grat­ing Sikh ethos and Sikh in­sti­tu­tions. The so­cial and cul­tural lead­er­ship of the Sikhs has a small can­vas. The re­li­gious lead­er­ship is help­less. The apex re­li­gious body –the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee, func­tions more like a branch than the main source, from which should flow the var­i­ous roles of the com­mu­nity. The po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship has its own petty po­lit­i­cal agenda, with the tag line -the com­mu­nity be damned, who cares!

The con­cerned Sikh is en­trenched in a bit­ter strug­gle to save our tra­di­tional mores.De­ject­edly, the gen­eral prog­no­sis is that we have ei­ther lost the bat­tle or are fight­inga lost one.

Notwith­stand­ing the dis­pute about the his­toric sta­tus and role of the Akal Takht and its Jathedar; since the last four decades, the in­cum­bent of the high­est tem­po­ral au­thor­ity of the Sikhs, has had to play a greater role in cur­rent re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ments. This role has rarely been bold, may be rev­o­lu­tion­ary on an oc­ca­sion or two but gen­er­ally has left the com­mu­nity more di­vided –ques­tion­ing the very ra­tio­nale of such an au­thor­ity or even worse -den­i­grat­ing the very im­por­tance of such an au­thor­ity.

Be­fore pen­ning these thoughts, I waited in hope that you will catch the bull by its horns and call a spade a spade, al­though in the last few years and decades, there has been lit­tle to strengthen such an ex­pec­ta­tion. Your pre­sent de­ci­sion with your com­pan­ion Jathedars to ex­on­er­ate a pseudo-saint –eu­phemisti­cally call­ing him­self Gur­mit Ram Rahim Singh, has fur­ther con­fused, di­vided and chal­lenged the role,

sta­tus and au­thor­ity of the tem­po­ral seat of the Sikhs. This heretic, ably as­sisted by the In­dian state and the In­dian ju­di­ciary at all lev­els through acts of omis­sion and com­mis­sion, who faces charges of mo­lesta­tion, sex­ual as­saults and mur­der, is sys­tem­at­i­cally build­ing a dan­ger­ous cult -not a sect -se­ri­ously threat­en­ing and chal­leng­ing the teach­ings of the Sikh Gu­rus and norms of civ­i­lized so­cial be­hav­iour.

The pres­sure of par­don touted by a cross-sec­tion of the Sikh lead­er­ship is also a wrong tune based on an ill-un­der­stand­ing of Sikh ethics. It has been rightly ob­served that even the use of the nomen­cla­ture Sacha Sauda to de­scribe the cult is a deep-rooted in­sult to Sacha Sauda -the true-bar­gain para­ble of Guru Nanak as a child. Blas­phemy has to be pun­ished not par­doned. Re­morse must fol­low blas­phemy not covert di­a­logues and re­lief in the face of a pos­si­ble ju­di­cial ver­dict against the cultist chief and so­cial op­pro­brium. Any po­lit­i­cal gain out of such a chi­canery will be a death-blow to eth­i­cal be­hav­iour and would be rightly per­ceived as crass po­lit­i­cal op­por­tunism.Some time back, as a po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist, I had the op­por­tu­nity to in­ter­act with mem­bers of the diplo­matic com­mu­nity and se­nior jour­nal­ists to de­lib­er­ate and dis­cuss the Sikh dis­tinct iden­tity ques­tion and the scope and par­a­digm of as­pi­ra­tions of the Sikh na­tion.

The salient ques­tions that cropped up, per­haps based on an un­der­stand­ing of ori­en­tal re­li­gious stud­ies were “Is the Sikh re­li­gious lead­er­ship a theo­cratic lead­er­ship?” and “Will the pro­jected Sikh state be a theo­cratic state?” Also, the oft-re­peated query, “In mod­ern times, how can one mix pol­i­tics and re­li­gion?” and “What is this re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal ap­proach?

The Akal Takht Sahib –‘the state within a state” has to up­hold its own dig­nity and sta­tus. With­out com­pro­mis­ing the ideals, all the Jathedars, of all the Takhts and the Sikh peo­ple have to evolve and prop­a­gate the phi­los­o­phy of Akal Takht Sahib and that of other Takhts in mod­ern po­lit­i­cal id­iom. This has not just to be de­scribed but also demon­strated. This is by no means an easy task, but it has to be done.

With all the hu­mil­ity taught to me by Guru Nanak, let me humbly sub­mit that what­ever the pres­sure, you need to stand up­right as the true up­holder of the seat of the Sixth Mas­ter –Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib and re­verse your de­ci­sion grant­ing par­don to the blas­phe­mous cultist of Sirsa. Should this not hap­pen soon, the Khalsa Panth –the Khalsa Com­mon­wealth –the Sikh peo­ple will have no choice but to re­vive the old tra­di­tion of as­sem­bly at Akal Takht Sahib twice a year to make their own re­li­gio- po­lit­i­cal de­ci­sions. The col­lec­tive will of the Khalsa Panth must and will pre­vail. Af­ter all, the “state within a state” has to func­tion. The Throne of the Almighty can­not be usurped or un­der­mined, de­val­ued or den­i­grated by worldly pow­ers.

You have no choice. No­body has.

With hum­ble re­gards and prayers for the Glory of the Khalsa.

Faith-fully yours

Jag­mo­han Singh