The test of lead­er­ship is al­ways in dif­fi­cult times.  Delhi gov­ern­ment seems to be tee­ter­ing to­wards a break­down amidst the 6-day lock­down. Health sys­tems have col­lapsed and in­di­vid­u­als are mak­ing des­per­ate arrange­ments for oxy­gen cylin­ders and life-sav­ing drugs. Streets are empty, but de­spite a lapse of 48 hours, there has been no an­nounce­ment so far re­gard­ing the post­pone­ment of DS­GMC polls, even though elec­tion­eer­ing has stopped and the CM Delhi Arvind Ke­jri­wal has to­day rec­om­mended post­pone­ment.   While it is a fait ac­com­pli and the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor’s of­fice will un­doubt­edly en­dorse the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Delhi gov­ern­ment, the snail’s pace at which it is be­ing done is heart­break­ing and dis­gust­ing.  WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh ap­peals for a quick de­ci­sion to re­lieve the con­test­ing par­ties and can­di­dates to take care of them­selves and their loved ones.

IN THE FIRST PLACE, when a pe­ti­tion seek­ing de­lay of the DS­GMC elec­tions was filed early this month, the gov­ern­ment of Delhi should not have given any as­sur­ance to the Delhi High Court, on the ba­sis of which the High Court er­ro­neously de­cided to have the elec­tions notwith­stand­ing the pre­car­i­ous COVID19 sit­u­a­tion. The gov­ern­ment of Delhi did not wake up when con­sci­en­tious Sikh cit­i­zens, bod­ies and ac­tivists ap­pealed to them to post­pone the elec­tions. Even now, a fi­nal call has not been taken, yet.

With the rec­om­men­da­tion of Arvind Ke­jri­wal for post­pone­ment of DS­GMC polls till 13 May, from the sched­uled 25 April, the con­tention of Ad­vo­cate Jag­mo­han Singh and so­cial ac­tivist Man­jit Singh Chugh seek­ing a post­pone­ment in their PIL in the Delhi High Court stands vin­di­cated.

The Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions of the Delhi gov­ern­ment man­dated to con­duct the DS­GMC polls, un­der the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Act 1971 is not reach­able since the last 48 hours to prospec­tive vot­ers and jour­nal­ists. All at­tempts to call the Di­rec­torate of­fice failed as there was no re­sponse. There is no of­fi­cial word on any­thing re­lat­ing to the DS­GMC polls.  There is no per­son in charge in the Di­rec­torate to pro­vide a daily up­date to the me­dia.

In the mid­dle of a lock­down to fight COVID 2.0 spread, the Delhi gov­ern­ment must act with god­speed and post­pone the DS­GMC elec­tions and not play with the lives of Delhi Sikhs.

With the rec­om­men­da­tion of Arvind Ke­jri­wal for post­pone­ment of DS­GMC polls till 13 May, from the sched­uled 25 April, the con­tention of Ad­vo­cate Jag­mo­han Singh and so­cial ac­tivist Man­jit Singh Chugh seek­ing a post­pone­ment in their PIL in the Delhi High Court stands vin­di­cated. 

Delhi is un­der com­plete lock­down for 6 days till Mon­day 26 April early morn­ing and the elec­tions are sched­uled for 25 April.  The hard-work­ing mi­grant labour, de­spite the Bol­ly­wood-like bravado of Delhi CM Arvind Ke­jri­wal telling them “Main Hoon Na” -I am there (for you), hun­dreds of thou­sands are re­turn­ing to their homes in UP and Bi­har, by buses and trains.  The health sys­tem in Delhi is crack­ing with the CM say­ing that for the ris­ing 25,000-plus daily cases, he has only 52 beds left. Life-sav­ing drugs, oxy­gen cylin­ders are in acutely short sup­ply.

The rec­om­men­da­tion of the Delhi Chief Min­is­ter to the LG’s of­fice is for post­pone­ment for 15 days. Why only 15 days? Within 15 days, will the COVID19 sit­u­a­tion im­prove so much that there will be a turn­around? Who is be­ing naive here?  Will Arvind Ke­jri­wal tell the Sikhs also, “Main Hoon Na” -I am there for you?

It is de­press­ing that the con­test­ing par­ties have also not said a word re­gard­ing the sta­tus of the polls and how they think that such an elec­tion would be “free and fair.” They have not taken the Delhi gov­ern­ment to task for its dilly-dal­ly­ing nor have they them­selves in­di­vid­u­ally or col­lec­tively taken a call in view of the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing COVID19 sit­u­a­tion in the In­dian cap­i­tal city.

How­ever, af­ter a long si­lence, Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi Pres­i­dent Paramjit Singh Sarna in a Face­book post to­day has said, “that while the gov­ern­ment may be right in post­pon­ing the DS­GMC polls based on the sta­tis­tics that they have, but the Di­rec­torate Gur­d­wara Elec­tions must en­sure that the in­cum­bent DS­GMC lead­er­ship of the Badal Dal, whose term has ex­pired, must not take any de­ci­sion what­so­ever on any sub­stan­tive mat­ter.” Whether one agrees with him or not, he has asked for a Re­ceiver to be ap­pointed as there are huge cor­rup­tion charges against the pre­sent in­cum­bent Badal Dal lead­er­ship.

It is com­fort­ing that the Delhi gov­ern­ment has ig­nored the ridicu­lous sug­ges­tions of lead­ing Se­nior Ad­vo­cate H. S. Phoolka re­gard­ing wait­ing till 23 April and then mak­ing a de­ci­sion.

It is com­fort­ing that the Delhi gov­ern­ment has ig­nored the ridicu­lous sug­ges­tions of lead­ing Se­nior Ad­vo­cate H. S. Phoolka re­gard­ing wait­ing till 23 April and then mak­ing a de­ci­sion. Clearly since his elec­tion and then res­ig­na­tion from the Pun­jab As­sem­bly as a leg­is­la­tor, H. S. Phoolka is still un­able to get his pol­i­tics straight.  Un­ques­tion­ably, 2ith se­vere re­stric­tions on as­sem­bly and trans­port, it would be wise and pru­dent to post­pone the polls.  His tweet has got a be­fit­ting re­ply from Sikh Cham­ber of Com­merce sheet-an­chor Samir Singh

NDMA & Elec­tion Comm can is­sue or­ders that if any Can­di­date vi­o­lates cur­few guide­lines, he will be dis­qual­i­fied. No can­vass­ing be al­lowed.
If in WB as­sem­bly elec­tions can be al­lowed, then why not small Gur­d­wara elec­tions. #Ds­gm­c­Elec­tion https://​t.co/​4N­QB­seZkhK

— H S Phoolka (@hspho­olka) April 19, 2021

What about those vot­ers who may be in con­tain­ment zones/​hos­pi­tal/​may not step out be­cause of con­cern/​ad­vise of doc­tors? Many did­n’t even file nom­i­na­tions due to the sit­u­a­tion. And who to vote for with­out cam­paign­ing…any ran­dom per­son? That is nei­ther an elec­tion nor se­lec­tion!

— Samir Singh (@singhisms) April 20, 2021

Fur­ther, have we be­come so in­hu­mane that while there are peo­ple dy­ing across the coun­try for lack of most ba­sics like #oxy­gen we want to be fo­cused on an elec­tion? This is not Sikhi! This is not what gov­er­nance is ei­ther! Truly sad­dened to see the state of af­fairs. #ICant­Breathe

— Samir Singh (@singhisms) April 20, 2021

A re­li­gious place can stay open with­out vis­i­tors and there shall be no re­li­gious or po­lit­i­cal gath­er­ings, says the Delhi gov­ern­ment lock­down. The DS­GMC elec­tions are of a re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal na­ture and it would im­pos­si­ble to can­vass with­out big or small gath­er­ings.  With strict trans­port move­ment, the ac­cess of vot­ers to vot­ing booths would be se­ri­ously com­pro­mised.

Ac­tu­ally, Sikh San­gat in West­ern Delhi and trans-Ja­muna ar­eas are more wor­ried about their lives and ar­rang­ing med­i­cines and oxy­gen cylin­ders. Many can­di­dates and their sup­port­ers are COVID19 pos­i­tive.

Samir Singh of the Sikh Cham­ber of Com­merce has dashed off a fresh mis­sive to Ra­jen­dra Pal Gau­tam -the Min­is­ter In-charge of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions in the AAP gov­ern­ment in Delhi seek­ing post­pone­ment of polls.  He wrote,  “Un­der the given sit­u­a­tion cam­paign­ing is not pos­si­ble and many will have to forcibly ab­stain or will vol­un­tar­ily ab­stain from vot­ing. As men­tioned in my pre­vi­ous let­ter the elec­tions if at all held in this at­mos­phere and en­vi­ron­ment or any­time soon will not be “free and fair.”  He fur­ther rued, the min­is­ters of the Delhi gov­ern­ment are play­ing the Tweet game but are not mak­ing sub­stan­tive de­ci­sions of im­me­di­ate con­cern.  It is heart­break­ing, he added.