As the es­tab­lished Sikh lead­er­ship in Delhi, through their way­ward ways, makes the Sikhs a laugh­ing stock in the In­dian cap­i­tal of Delhi, a group of young­sters un­der the in­ter­est­ing ban­ner of Delhi Fateh Jatha are keen to re­verse the trend by ush­er­ing in change and mak­ing the es­tab­lished Sikh lead­er­ship ac­count­able to the Sikh San­gat.

A new body of Sikh youth –Delhi Fateh Jatha –tak­ing the nomen­cla­ture of the tra­di­tional Akalis of yes­ter­years by us­ing the word Jatha –sig­ni­fy­ing a col­lec­tive with a col­lec­tive lead­er­ship, young Sikhs, pri­mar­ily from West Delhi came to­gether and or­gan­ised a sem­i­nar on the role of Sikhs in Delhi un­der the pre­sent cir­cum­stances.

The pi­o­neers of the move­ment Iqbal Singh, Bhavneet Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Amardeep Singh told this re­porter that,  “along with many of our as­so­ci­ates, we are keen to usher in a cli­mate of de­bate and di­a­logue to un­der­stand the prob­lems and prospects for work amongst the Sikhs in Delhi. A change for the bet­ter.”

“There was a need to un­der­stand the whole sit­u­a­tion. Sikhs do not live in iso­la­tion. No­body does. The whole gamut of changes tak­ing place is dy­namic in na­ture and in this de­vel­op­ment Sikhs have to chalk out their plans and strate­gies.”

Ajmer Singh, scholar and his­to­rian

An in­ter­est­ing pat­tern seems to be emerg­ing in many Sikh cir­cles to­day. While the Sikhs are dis­traught at the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing stan­dards of Sikh re­li­gious and pub­lic life of their lead­ers, there are many among the com­mu­nity, es­pe­cially the youth who are keen to turn the tide by start­ing a string of di­a­logues and de­bates on sub­stan­tive is­sues con­fronting the Sikhs. The Delhi Fateh Jatha should be seen as a de­vel­op­ment to­wards this end.

Speak­ing at the well at­tended sem­i­nar, pri­mar­ily of young­sters, noted his­to­rian and scholar Ajmer Singh said that, “there was need to un­der­stand the whole sit­u­a­tion. Sikhs do not live in iso­la­tion. No­body does. The whole gamut of changes tak­ing place is dy­namic in na­ture and in this de­vel­op­ment Sikhs have to chalk out their plans and strate­gies.” He told the gath­er­ing, lis­ten­ing with rapt at­ten­tion that there was no short-cut and Sikhs had to take into ac­count the many facets of the strug­gle.

“Think­ing im­me­di­ately of so­lu­tions with­out un­der­stand­ing the prob­lem that Sikhs have to grap­ple with is fraught with dan­ger. We get wrong re­sults be­cause we have not un­der­stood the prob­lem cor­rectly.”

 Read this story in Pun­jabi : ਸਿੱਖ ਸਫਾਵਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਇਕ ਨਵੀ ਸੋਚ ਦਾ ਆਗਾਜ਼ –”ਦਿੱਲੀ ਫਤਿਹ ਜੱਥਾ” ਹੋਂਦ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਇਆ

“There are thir­teen dif­fer­ent strains of so­lu­tions that Sikhs are cog­i­tat­ing with, to bet­ter their lot in the so­ci­ety and world, each hav­ing the po­ten­tial to re­solve the var­i­ous chal­lenges.”

Mand­hir Singh, scholar and the­o­rist

Al­lud­ing to the geo-po­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion in In­dia, the role of In­dian po­lit­i­cal par­ties, the role of Brah­mins and the other higher castes, he said, “the propen­sity of the Brah­min to cheat whole­sale has to be un­der­stood thor­oughly.” He how­ever warned that, “even af­ter un­der­stand­ing we can make mis­takes, but ef­forts have to be done to go the root of the is­sue.”

In a re­mark­able sin­cere speech, straight from the heart, in a mea­sured tone and tenor, the like of which is a rar­ity nowa­days, young the­o­rist, scholar and ac­tivist Mand­hir Singh men­tioned that there are thir­teen dif­fer­ent strains of so­lu­tions that Sikhs are cog­i­tat­ing with, to bet­ter their lot in the so­ci­ety and world. With­out tak­ing sides, he po­litely men­tioned that each one so­lu­tion has the po­ten­tial to re­solve the var­i­ous chal­lenges that the Sikhs face on many fronts, yet, Sikhs them­selves will have to han­dle the same and keep on evolv­ing a so­lu­tion best suited for the chal­lenges and the times, in any given sit­u­a­tion. Re­act­ing to the man­ner of speak­ing and de­liv­er­ance shown by Mand­hir Singh, ac­tivist Gurmeet Singh from Delhi said, “He was a clas­sic ex­am­ple of what a par­lia­men­tar­ian should be like. I have never lis­tened to such a speech in the last two decades. It was sim­ply ex­cep­tional.”

“Char­ac­ter build­ing, poverty al­le­vi­a­tion, ed­u­ca­tion, health and re­source gen­er­a­tion can be a five-point agenda for the Delhi Fateh Jatha to fol­low.”

Jag­mo­han Singh, Ed­i­tor, WSN

 

As Ajmer Singh pro­vided the his­tor­i­cal-philo­soph­i­cal touch and Mand­hir Singh ren­dered the the­o­ret­i­cal base for the chal­lenges, World Sikh News ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh out­lined the prac­ti­cal role that the youth could play to bring about change on the can­vas of Sikhs in Delhi. He said that, “char­ac­ter build­ing, poverty al­le­vi­a­tion, ed­u­ca­tion, health and re­source gen­er­a­tion can be a five-point agenda for the Delhi Fateh Jatha to fol­low.” Al­lud­ing again and again to the fact that there is no need for hurry and that there are no short-cuts, he urged the youth to take up prob­lems one by one and solve them. He asked them to de­velop read­ing skills and be aware of the de­vel­op­ments around them.

Delhi is the epi­cen­tre of pol­i­tics in the coun­try. Delhi is a place where in yes­ter­years the Sikh lead­er­ship came, con­quered and re­turned back to Pun­jab. Sikhs have a very close tie-up with Delhi.

To­day, the en­trenched Sikh lead­er­ship of Delhi, par­tic­u­larly of the DS­GMC is mak­ing Sikhs a laugh­ing stock. The Delhi Fateh Jatha is de­ter­mined to put the com­mu­nity on the right course and to make the es­tab­lished Sikh lead­er­ship ac­count­able.

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