The Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee -DS­GMC elec­tions are sched­uled for Sun­day, 25 April 2021 whilst there is an of­fi­cial week­end lock­down on that day. Face­book posts, videos and voices of protest by the Delhi San­gat are grow­ing steadily in the last 72 hours as the Coro­n­avirus scare mounts. The Delhi CM Arvind Ke­jri­wal looks vis­i­bly wor­ried even af­ter im­pos­ing a week­end lock­down as the num­bers of in­fected pa­tients are hit­ting the roof. As we write, a one-week lock­down has been an­nounced by Delhi CM Arvind Ke­jri­wal mak­ing fur­ther re­duc­ing the pos­si­bil­ity of the elec­tions. As con­cerned Sikh groups make a fer­vent ap­peal, the gov­ern­ment of Delhi, notwith­stand­ing the si­lence of par­tic­i­pat­ing groups and can­di­dates, WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh eval­u­ates that the Delhi gov­ern­ment should act wisely in time and put the elec­tions on hold, oth­er­wise, it will be noth­ing but a sham elec­tion process with a record min­i­mum par­tic­i­pa­tion.

THE DEADLY STRIKE OF COVID 2.0 af­ter a very brief lull in the last months, which lead to lax­ity and brash­ness by gov­ern­ments and cit­i­zens is more dan­ger­ous than the first wave of the pan­demic.

Young Sikhs and oth­ers are falling like ninepins, there is an acute short­age of life-sav­ing drugs, in­clud­ing Remedesivir, hos­pi­tal beds in COVID wards and ICU wards of pri­vate and gov­ern­ment hos­pi­tals are vir­tu­ally un­avail­able, so­cial ser­vice bod­ies are help­less with non-avail­abil­ity of Oxy­gen and rel­a­tives of those who have died, de­pend upon good samar­i­tans to as­sist in cre­ma­tion as trans­port fa­cil­i­ties are choked.

With the week­end cur­few im­posed by the Delhi Chief Min­is­ter Arvind Ke­jri­wal, life seems to be com­ing to a stand­still with peo­ple them­selves im­pos­ing a halt on their ac­tiv­i­ties de­spite grave fi­nan­cial con­di­tions.

The par­ties and can­di­dates con­test­ing the DS­GMC elec­tions have nei­ther unit­edly nor in­di­vid­u­ally sought the post­pone­ment of polls, though some have ad­mit­ted off the record that, the sit­u­a­tion is very grim. Gur­d­waras and NGOs are buy­ing oxy­gen cylin­ders and other needs to help the weak and the vul­ner­a­ble and the sit­u­a­tion is so scary that ir­re­spec­tive of one’s fi­nan­cial strength, every­one is in the red zone.

Why can’t the DS­GMC elec­tions be post­poned? Even though it is a re­li­gious elec­tion, it is not a sacro­sanct af­fair that it can­not be de­layed? There are am­ple in­ci­dences of post­pone­ment in the past.

A Sikh tragedy is hap­pen­ing. The Gov­ern­ment is bliss­fully ig­nor­ing the sit­u­a­tion vis-a-vis DS­GMC polls. The 342,050 reg­is­tered Sikhvot­ers, of which in any case no more than 40 per cent were ex­pected to vote are non­cha­lant about the DS­GMC elec­tions and are sim­ply go­ing with the sway with­out a mur­mur of protest. The Sikh lead­er­ship of all hues and shades is not dis­play­ing much-needed gutsy lead­er­ship as they and their can­di­dates have spent their thou­sands and per­haps more wor­ried about that. The Di­rec­torate Gur­d­wara Elec­tions -the au­thor­ity man­dated to con­duct the elec­tions is fol­low­ing the copy­book for­mula that “elec­tions once an­nounced can­not be touched.”

Why can’t the DS­GMC elec­tions be post­poned? Even though it is a re­li­gious elec­tion, it is not a sacro­sanct af­fair that it can­not be de­layed? There are am­ple in­ci­dences of post­pone­ment in the past.

Are the lives of peo­ple less im­por­tant than con­duct­ing elec­tions as sched­uled with life to­tally thrown out of gear? On 18 April, there were an un­prece­dented 25,462 new in­fec­tions, push­ing the to­tal to 850,000 with 161 fa­tal­i­ties. The fa­tal­ity rate is also dou­bling.

We will be un­able to make the vot­ers aware of their votes and vot­ing cen­tres. In such a sit­u­a­tion, there is no choice but to de­lay the elec­tions,

Harneek Singh, Pres­i­dent, Sikh Youth Foun­da­tion, Ra­jouri Gar­den, New Delhi

In the last 72 hours, sup­port­ers of can­di­dates, deeply con­cerned Delhi Sikh cit­i­zens and Sikh ac­tivists from out­side Delhi too have also lent their voice for post­pone­ment of the polls be­yond 25 April, through video posts and ap­peals to the Gov­ern­ment of Delhi.

Stal­wart Sikh cit­i­zens of Delhi in­clud­ing Push­pin­der Singh, Pres­i­dent Sikh Fo­rum, Ravin­der Singh Ahuja, Vice Pres­i­dent, Sikh Fo­rum, DIG Par­tap Singh (Retd), Sec­re­tary, Sikh Fo­rum, Ma­jor Gen­eral PS Mal­ho­tra, for­mer Pres­i­dent, Gur­d­wara Sahib, De­fence Colony, Lt. Gen Dal­bir Singh Sidhu, Surinder­jeet Singh Pal, Chair­man, Kesh Samb­hal Prachar Sanstha, Baldev Singh, Ad­min­is­tra­tor, Guru Granth Sahib Vidya Kendra, Mehrauli, Dr Preeti Kaur Ahuja, Pres­i­dent, Gur­d­wara Sahib, De­fence Colony, New Delhi, Gur­preet Singh Bawa, for­mer Pres­i­dent, Gur­d­wara Sahib, De­fence Colony, New Delhi, Air Vice Mar­shal PS Bhan­goo, Sikh Col­lec­tive co­or­di­na­tor Gurmeet Singh have dashed a mis­sive to Delhi CM Ke­jri­wal mak­ing an ur­gent ap­peal to de­lay the elec­tions by at least a month. The let­ter sent un­der the aegis of The Sikh Col­lec­tive says, “Heav­ens are not go­ing to fall if the Gur­d­wara elec­tions are de­layed by a month or so. Please in­ter­vene to im­me­di­ately post­pone the elec­tions sched­uled for 25th April 2021.”

Though he is not a voter in the DS­GMC polls, Gur­preet Singh, Pres­i­dent, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies, Chandi­garh, who has been tak­ing a keen in­ter­est in the de­vel­op­ments in Delhi has also en­dorsed the call of var­i­ous mem­bers of The Sikh Fo­rum for de­lay of the elec­tions.

I en­dorse the call of The Sikh Fo­rum and The Sikh Col­lec­tive seek­ing post­pone­ment of the DS­GMC polls. by a month or so.

Gur­preet Singh, Pres­i­dent, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies, Chandi­garh

Sub­mit­ting the ra­tio­nale for post­pone­ment, these Sikh cit­i­zens of Delhi, who are al­ways at the fore­front of pub­lic con­cern, have said that “Al­ready Sikh youth are dy­ing and many are in­flicted with the Coro­n­avirus. Four can­di­dates are un­der quar­an­tine.”

“While dis­miss­ing a pub­lic in­ter­est pe­ti­tion last week, the Delhi High Court re­lied upon the as­sur­ance given by the coun­sel of the Di­rec­torate Gur­d­wara Elec­tions and the Delhi Gov­ern­ment that they would en­sure com­pli­ance with health ad­vi­sories. In the pre­sent sit­u­a­tion, none of the ad­vi­sories is be­ing com­plied with nor is it pos­si­ble for your Gov­ern­ment to en­sure such com­pli­ance,” the let­ter adds, lay­ing down the clear scope for the Delhi gov­ern­ment to take im­me­di­ate ac­tion.

It may be borne in mind that the term of the last DS­GMC was over in Jan­u­ary 2021 and hence as it is the elec­tions are de­layed by three months. De­lay­ing it by an­other 1-2 months will only de­lay the con­sti­tu­tion of the new house.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive in a let­ter to Delhi CM Ke­jri­wal, seek­ing post­pone­ment of DS­GMC polls.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive let­ter pro­vides logic to their call, say­ing, “Fur­ther­more, it may be borne in mind that the term of the last DS­GMC was over in Jan­u­ary 2021 and hence as it is the elec­tions are de­layed by three months. De­lay­ing it by an­other 1-2 months will only de­lay the con­sti­tu­tion of the new house. All other for­mal­i­ties hav­ing been com­pleted, phys­i­cal cam­paign­ing can be stopped by a no­ti­fi­ca­tion by the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions till a fresh date is an­nounced.”

Coro­n­avirus is caus­ing havoc. No­body wants to step out to vote. We will be un­able to make the vot­ers aware of their votes and vot­ing cen­tres. In such a sit­u­a­tion, there is no choice but to de­lay the elec­tions, wrote Harneek Singh of the Sikh Youth Foun­da­tion of Ra­jouri Gar­den, in their let­ter to the Delhi Chief Min­is­ter.

Go­ing out to vote in­volves risk­ing ones’ health and life since COVID19 is spread­ing very fast and un­for­tu­nately the gov­ern­ment staff and vot­ers would not be able to main­tain a high level of safety mea­sures.

Harpreet Singh Sodhi, Ad­vo­cate in a mis­sive to Di­rec­torate Gur­d­wara Elec­tions

Rais­ing a very de­mo­c­ra­tic point re­gard­ing the right of the el­derly to ex­er­cise their right of fran­chise, Samir Singh of the Sikh Cham­ber of Com­merce, in his email to Ke­jri­wal, among other things says, “Due to the news and com­mu­ni­ca­tion from both cen­tral and state gov­ern­ments there is grow­ing con­cern among many, es­pe­cially se­nior cit­i­zens but not just lim­ited to them, about step­ping out even for es­sen­tials let alone con­sider do­ing so for cast­ing their vote no mat­ter how im­por­tant the elec­tion is to them. On the day of the elec­tion, there may be many who may have a fam­ily mem­ber/​s or even them­selves in quar­an­tine or ad­mit­ted in hos­pi­tal which would mean they will also not be able to cast their votes. This will cause all those to lose their de­mo­c­ra­tic right to vote and elect a com­mit­tee of their choice.”

He fur­ther added that by post­pon­ing the elec­tions, they could be held in a safe en­vi­ron­ment and vot­ers can ex­er­cise their right to vote and not lose out on a “once in a four year op­por­tu­nity and re­spon­si­bil­ity” to choose and elect a com­mit­tee of their choice.

Lawyer-ac­tivist Harpreet Singh Sodhi in an email to the Di­rec­torate Gur­d­wara Elec­tions, ex­press­ing con­cern on be­half of the Sikh San­gat has sought post­pone­ment of elec­tions by a month wrote, “Every colony of Delhi has COVID19 pa­tients and the sit­u­a­tion is tense….elec­tions will in­volve vot­ers go­ing out of their houses to a pub­lic place -schools and other des­ig­nated cen­tres to cast their votes. This in­volves risk­ing their health and life since COVID19 is spread­ing very fast and un­for­tu­nately the gov­ern­ment staff and vot­ers would not be able to main­tain a high level of safety mea­sures.”

In an emo­tional ap­peal to Chief Min­is­ter Ke­jri­wal, young Delhi Sikh ac­tivists Amardeep Singh from Tilak Na­gar, Aman­deep Singh from the Trans Ya­muna area, Aman­preet Singh from Ro­hini, Bhawneet Singh from Viren­der Na­gar, Harbinder Singh from Ma­havir Na­gar and Iqbal Singh from Shal­i­mar Bagh have said, “The value of hu­man life is known only to those who lose their loved ones. So­ci­ety does com­mis­er­ate but the pain and an­guish of the dear ones are acute and un­bear­able. Mod­ern so­ci­ety has de­val­ued life and the COVID19 pan­demic is mak­ing this worse. The Sikh com­mu­nity will hold you in high re­gard if you heed our plea to post­pone the elec­tions.”

“The value of hu­man life is known only to those who lose their loved ones. The Sikh com­mu­nity will hold you in high re­gard if you heed our plea to post­pone the DS­GMC elec­tions.”

Sikh youth from across the city in a let­ter writ­ten in Pun­jabi to Delhi CM

DS­GMC elec­tions are for the man­age­ment of his­tor­i­cal and other Gur­d­waras and ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions, as well as car­ry­ing out hu­man­i­tar­ian ac­tiv­i­ties. Sikhs as a com­mu­nity are ded­i­cated to Sar­bat da Bhala -Wel­fare of all hu­mankind. It will be a mis­car­riage of the spirit of elec­tions to this au­gust his­tor­i­cal body if elec­tions are held when there is a huge scare of a pan­demic de­stroy­ing the lives of all in­clud­ing, Sikh cit­i­zens.