..so now the Hindu Rash­tra cre­ators take on Sikhs and Sikhism in Delhi. Given the pro­cliv­ity of the hate brigade, the dan­ger it pro­tends, it is time to take stock and be­ware!

Sikhs in Delhi need to be on their toes. The march of the Hin­dutva zealots is mak­ing di­rect in­roads into Sikhism and test­ing us by beat­ing us again. Last night, a group of 3 young Sikhs from Ashram pay­ing by saw a ban­ner and as it was of­fen­sive to Sikhs, de­cided to re­move it. As they were do­ing so, a gang of 40-odd Hin­dutva pro­tag­o­nists reached the scene and pounced on them.

Hin­dutva lead­ers had put up huge bill boards out­side Gur­d­wara Bala Sahib show­ing Guru Nanak and Guru Gob­ind Singh next to the faces of Hindu God Hanu­man. The style of plac­ing the faces was like that of the ten de­monly faces of Ra­vana.

Around 10-12 youth in­clud­ing Sarab­jeet Singh (Rau­naq), Gagan Singh, Karan Singh and Sahib Singh, tried to rea­son with them that the ban­ner was be­ing re­moved as it is badly con­ceived , but one of them roared, “Do you want us to take you back to 1984?”  Speak­ing to this cor­re­spon­dent on the phone one of the young men who was beaten up -Sarab­jeet Singh (Rau­naq) from Ashram said, “they were hell bent on beat­ing us. Some of my Hindu friends who were with us, tried to con­vince them but they just would­n’t yield.”  He fur­ther said that “We even told them that we are tak­ing the ban­ner to be kept ap­pro­pri­ately in the Gur­d­wara Sahib as re­li­gious pic­tures are there on it”. They would not lis­ten to any­thing.  They were around 10-12 boys, some ran away to es­cape the iron rods and three of them in­clud­ing Sarab­jeet Singh (Rau­naq) were caught and beaten. He told me, “we fought bravely, did not al­low them to dis­lodge our tur­bans.”

Mo­men­tar­ily, on the phone, I was taken aback at the 1984 re­mark, so I asked Sarab­jeet Singh (Rau­naq), “Can I re­port this in WSN?  He replied, “Oh yes. The face of that man beat­ing me with rods and I re­sist­ing him is fresh in my mind and I await the day when I will take him on again.”

Not con­tent with beat­ing the youth, the lumpens caught a 10 year old Sikh boy who had come on an er­rand to a shop nearby and was beaten mer­ci­lessly. This is threat­en­ing and sick­en­ing. The boy is okay but un­able to un­der­stand what hap­pened to him so sud­denly and the rea­sons for it.

The po­lice ar­rived on the scene but in­stead of stop­ping the per­pe­tra­tors, started beat­ing the Sikhs, who had by then gath­ered in large num­bers. They were forced to dis­perse. No ar­rests have been made so far. A com­plaint had been lodged at the Sul­tan Na­gar po­lice sta­tion. Will the po­lice pur­sue ac­tion against those who de­signed and dis­played the poster? Will the po­lice at­tempt to pros­e­cute the per­son who made the 1984 re­mark?

Yes­ter­day, Hin­dutva pa­tri­ots played a song for all to lis­ten on the streets of Ranchi -the cap­i­tal city of Jhark­hand, clearly say­ing that they would make the Mus­lims say Jai Shri Ram and Har Har Ma­hadev and that they are ready to sac­ri­fice them­selves on the al­tar of Hin­duism.

Are you shocked? The free run given to cow pro­tec­tion­ist vig­i­lantes, anti-Romeo vol­un­teers, the cry for Ram Mandir across the coun­try is omi­nous of the times to come. George Or­well’s Big Brother is watch­ing you..what you say? What you eat? What you study? What re­li­gious faith you be­long to?

Will the DS­GMC take this up with their BJP coun­ter­parts? Notwith­stand­ing the vic­tory of Manin­der Singh Sirsa -Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party can­di­date from Ra­jouri Gar­den con­stituency, Sikhs of Delhi -be­ware!

“They are very clear in what they want.” Are we?