This will come as a shock to the Sikh world. This is an ex­clu­sive Open Let­ter to De­ven­dra Fad­navis, the Chief Min­is­ter of Ma­ha­rash­tra, ex­pos­ing the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal move to foist Baba Ramde­v’s busi­ness ven­ture Patan­jal­i’s di­rec­tor Bhupin­der Singh Min­has as the chair­per­son of the Takht Hazur Sahib Board. The Hazuri Sikhs are up in arms. WSN un­earths the sur­rep­ti­tious or­di­nance of the gov­ern­ment al­low­ing di­rect in­ter­fer­ence in Takht af­fairs.

Dear Mr De­ven­dra Fad­navis: Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh! Greet­ings in the Name of God, the light of every soul and may the vic­tory be of the God Almighty!

I write to fore­warn you that any­one who has at­tempted to med­dle in the re­li­gious and re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal af­fairs of the Sikh na­tion has had to face its wrath and ire. The very fact that you had to tweet a re­trac­tion last week is a clear in­di­ca­tion of the malafide in­ten­tions of your gov­ern­ment, party and your­self.

With the ide­o­log­i­cal back­ing of the Rashtriya Swayam­se­wak Sangh in nearby Nag­pur, the ac­tive sup­port of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ar­ro­gance of be­ing the Chief Min­is­ter of the state and the covert wheel­ing-deal­ing with your par­ty’s as­so­ci­ate Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, you have been at­tempt­ing to di­lute and un­der­mine the im­por­tance of the Throne of the Almighty –Takht Abchal­na­gar Huzur Sahib at Nanded through pol­i­tick­ing, bar­gain­ing, sub­terfuge and il­le­gal amend­ment to long-ex­ist­ing rules, reg­u­la­tions and laws with­out con­sult­ing the Sikhs.

. @Har­sim­rat­Badal_ ji
Af­ter wider con­sul­ta­tion govt de­cided not to push the said amend­ment in the Win­ter Ses­sion. The no­tice of mo­tion has also been al­lowed to lapse.
Pls don’t be­lieve the ru­mours. @BJP4In­dia al­ways stood firm with the sen­ti­ments of the com­mu­nity. https://​t.co/​dCb8gxxCwj

— De­ven­dra Fad­navis (@De­v_­Fad­navis) Jan­u­ary 22, 2019

The man­ner in which the Jathedar of Takht Huzur Sahib –Jathedar Kul­want Singh, deputy Jathedar –Jathedar Jy­otin­dra Singh and their Panj Pyare team re­volted on 21 Jan­u­ary 2019, from within the sanc­tum sanc­to­rum of the Takht Sahib against the move of your gov­ern­ment is un­prece­dented. Jathedar Jy­otin­dra Singh went on live TV to ex­hort the Sikh San­gat to join in the protest against the move of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra.

The Gur­mata –the peo­ples’ res­o­lu­tion -dated 21 Jan­u­ary 2019, co- signed by Jathedar Kul­want Singh, Jathedar Jy­otin­dra Singh, Jathedar Kash­mir Singh, Jathedar Av­tar Singh and Jathedar Ram Singh reads, “The mem­bers gath­ered at this meet con­sid­ered the amend­ment to Sec­tion 11 of the Takht Hazur Sahib Act 1956 and asked the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra to im­me­di­ately with­draw the said amend­ment and al­low the 17 mem­bers of the Takht Board to de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally choose its Pres­i­dent.”

It speaks of the fear psy­chosis that grips the Hazuri Sikhs –the Sikhs liv­ing in Hazur Sahib, who are be­ing over­awed by the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra un­der one pre­text or the other.

The World Sikh News learns that con­fab­u­la­tions are on and a shock­ing at­tempt is be­ing made to foist pro-BJP busi­ness­man-saint Baba Ramdev as­so­ci­ate and rich Sikh busi­ness mag­nate Bhupin­der Singh Min­has as the chair­per­son of the Takht Board. He is cur­rently the Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Takht Hazur Sahib board. While any Sikh has the right to be­come a mem­ber and then the Pres­i­dent, why is this be­ing done in such a co­er­cive and covert man­ner? Are the mo­tives not clear?

It has taken me more time than nec­es­sary, but fi­nally the cat is out of the bag. On 18 Feb­ru­ary 2015, your gov­ern­ment asked the Gov­er­nor of Ma­ha­rash­tra to is­sue an or­di­nance amend­ing The Takht Sri Hazur Abchal­na­gar Sahib Board Nanded Act, 1956. This patently il­le­gal or­di­nance was car­ried through with the ul­te­rior mo­tive of in­stalling BJP MLA Tara Singh as the Chair­per­son of the Board for man­ag­ing the af­fairs of the Takht and 8 other as­so­ci­ated Gur­d­waras in the vicin­ity of the Takht. The Sikhs were un­aware of the or­di­nance but willy-nilly ac­cepted Tara Singh.

A copy of this or­di­nance, which has been un­der the wraps for all these years; it was not placed be­fore the Ma­ha­rash­tra leg­is­la­ture for re­view and rat­i­fi­ca­tion and it  con­tains clear-cut pro­vi­sions, usurp­ing pow­ers to di­rectly ap­point the Pres­i­dent of the Takht Hazur Sahib Board. Why?

This or­di­nance re­minds me of the or­di­nance is­sued in the six­ties of the last cen­tury to lower the qual­i­fi­ca­tions of the Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC, by the Pres­i­dent of In­dia, when the then Prime Min­is­ter In­dira Gandhi wanted to foist her loyal pup­pet Jathedar San­tokh Singh as the pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC as he did not qual­ify for the post of the pres­i­dent as per the then pre­vail­ing norms. This or­di­nance was is­sued the night be­fore the pres­i­den­tial polls.

Prime Min­is­ter In­dira Gandhi at­tempted to take con­trol of Akal Takht Sahib, get the van­dalised Akal Takht re­con­structed from paid fraud­sters and agent- provo­ca­teurs of the gov­ern­ment and the re­sult is for the world to see. I am shell-shocked that nei­ther you nor your as­so­ci­ates have learnt the lessons of med­dling in Sikh af­fairs.

To set the mat­ter fair and square, the World Sikh News is pub­lish­ing the or­di­nance in Marathi, is­sued by the gov­er­nor within six months of you tak­ing over the reigns as Chief Min­is­ter of the state.  Why was an or­di­nance is­sued and why not an amend­ment brought be­fore the Ma­ha­rash­tra leg­is­la­ture is an­other mat­ter.

The Nanded Sikh Gur­d­wara Sachkhan Sri Hazur Abch­gal­na­gar Sahib Board Nanded Act 1956 was passed by the then Hy­der­abad gov­ern­ment and af­ter the re­or­gan­i­sa­tion of states on lin­guis­tic ba­sis, it be­came part of Ma­ha­rash­tra.  The Nizam of Hy­der­abad in an ex­pres­sion of grat­i­tude to­wards the mag­na­nim­ity shown by Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh, gifted hun­dreds of acres of land to the House of the Gu­rus in Nanded, a good por­tion of which to­day stands usurped due to the neg­li­gence of the Sikhs and the com­plic­ity of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra over the years.

How­ever, over the decades, through per­ni­cious in­ter­ven­tion in the af­fairs of the Takht Sahib, the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra in one way or the other has been usurp­ing lands, mis­di­rect­ing funds and at­tempt­ing to foist loyal lead­ers notwith­stand­ing their ac­cept­abil­ity among the Sikhs. No more.

As per the pro­vi­sions of the 1956 Act, two Sikh Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment are nom­i­nated to the 17-mem­ber Takht Hazur Sahib board. It is ab­solutely shock­ing that the BJP gov­ern­ment has ma­noeu­vred that no Sikh mem­bers are nom­i­nated as a re­sult of which the nu­mer­i­cal strength of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra nom­i­nees jumps from two to four, in­creas­ing their lever­age to play with the man­age­ment of the Takht Hazur Sahib. As re­gards the du­ties of the Sikh Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment in this re­gard-ir­re­spec­tive of the party they be­long to, the less said the bet­ter.

I un­der­stand that there is an is­sue of con­flict be­tween some fac­tions of the Sachk­hand Hazuri Khalsa Di­wan which has not been able to be united in nom­i­nat­ing four of its mem­bers through their very de­mo­c­ra­tic func­tion­ing body where the choice is unan­i­mous in an open house like a mini Sar­bat Khalsa. I am also at­tempt­ing to un­earth as to why was the Hazur Sikh san­gat silent all these three years?

Then there was this ef­fort made by your pre­de­ces­sor to en­large the scope of the Takht Sahib Com­mit­tee by ask­ing the for­mer Bom­bay High Court Judge J S Bha­tia to make the rec­om­men­da­tions re­gard­ing the Takht Hazur Sahib Act. No one knows what those rec­om­men­da­tions were and what hap­pened to them.  Were any rec­om­men­da­tions made to in­crease elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the state of Ma­ha­rash­tra? Whether they tabled in the Ma­ha­rash­tra Leg­isla­tive as­sem­bly or not? Whether there was a round of con­sul­ta­tion with the Huzuri Sikh pop­u­la­tion of Nanded? Whether the SGPC is aware of the rec­om­men­da­tions? Who is play­ing with Sikh sen­ti­ments?

The Tenth Mas­ter –the King of Kings –Guru Gob­ind Singh –con­se­crated the land of Nanded with his di­vine pres­ence in the last decade of his life there. He breathed his last and merged with the Di­vine in this place. It is here that Guru Gob­ind Singh be­stowed Gu­ru­ship to Guru Granth Sahib, end­ing the lin­eage of Gu­rus in hu­man form. From that day to this day and for all times to come –the Shabad –the Word as en­shrined in the Guru Granth Sahib will be the Guru –the en­light­ener for the Sikhs and all hu­mankind se­ri­ous to know about the re­la­tion­ship be­tween hu­man be­ings and God. It will con­tinue to guide the Sikhs on the path of Sar­bat da Bhala and the cre­ation of a just world or­der fo­cussed God­wards and not lim­ited to the elite and cho­sen few. It is this re­li­gios­ity and his­toric­ity that the Sikhs re­vere.

“Ma­ha­rash­tra Tum­cha Aahe, pann Nanded Sikhan­cha”

A Hazuri Sikh from Nanded

The Sikhs re­alise you are be­ing guided by the logic that nur­tures the per­verted de­sire to over­awe the Sikhs and to make in­roads into their re­li­gious af­fairs. This road is very slip­pery and fraught with dan­ger.

You will do well to gov­ern the large state of Maha-rash­tra, serve the peo­ple of Vi­darbha re­gion and pro­vide suc­cour and re­lief to the dy­ing farm­ers com­mit­ting sui­cide in thou­sands.

Presently, the in­cum­bent chair­per­son of the Takht Hazur Sahib Board and BJP MLA Tara Singh has re­signed, as his term is over, but the res­ig­na­tion safely sits in your pock­ets, to be used as a bar­gain­ing chip with your party ally Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal. With the age of the so­cial me­dia, these bar­gain­ing chips and sur­rep­ti­tious or­di­nances do not have long lives. This game is over.

“Amend­ment of Sec­tion 11 of the Takht Hazur Sahib Act is un­ac­cept­able. We are aware of the la­cu­nae and loop­holes in the Act but for the pre­sent we want that the en­tire 1956 should be re­stored and im­ple­mented in toto.”

Gi­ani Jy­otin­dra Singh, Deputy Jathedar, Takht Hazur Sahib, Nanded

The Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment and you must ex­press re­gret at the man­ner in which you at­tempted to take over gov­er­nance of Takht Hazur Sahib, fail­ing which we will pe­ti­tion not only the law courts of the land but also the Jathedars of the Takht Hazur Sahib and the Jathedars of Akal Takht Sahib –the Throne of the Almighty to sum­mon you and your other as­so­ci­ates –Sikhs or non-Sikhs, who have wicked plans re­gard­ing the man­age­ment of Takht Hazur Sahib.

Speak­ing ex­clu­sively to World Sikh News, Deputy Jathedar of Takht Hazur Sahib, Gi­ani Jy­otin­dra Singh said, “Amend­ment of Sec­tion 11 of the Takht Hazur Sahib Act is un­ac­cept­able. We are aware of the la­cu­nae and loop­holes in the Act but for the pre­sent we want that the en­tire 1956 should be re­stored and im­ple­mented in toto.”

Vet­eran Hazuri Sikh leader Laddu Singh Ma­ha­jan while talk­ing to this writer said, “We will lay down our lives but will not tol­er­ate any in­ter­fer­ence in the af­fairs of the Takht. All in­ter­nal dif­fer­ences will be sorted out but this kind of crass in­dul­gence in Sikh af­fairs is not ac­cept­able at all.”

An­other Sikh said, “Ma­ha­rash­tra Tum­cha Aahe, pann Nanded Sikhan­cha” –Un­doubt­edly Ma­ha­rash­tra be­longs to you, but Nanded be­longs to the Sikhs! It is the dic­tum of the Sikh doc­trine to con­struct is­lands of sov­er­eignty where world laws don’t mat­ter and worldly au­thor­i­ties will do well to ad­here to this.

“We will lay down our lives but will not tol­er­ate any in­ter­fer­ence in the af­fairs of the Takht. All in­ter­nal dif­fer­ences will be sorted out but this kind of crass in­dul­gence in Sikh af­fairs is not ac­cept­able at all.”

Laddu Singh Ma­ha­jan, Vet­eran Hazuri Sikh leader

The writ of the Sikh com­mu­nity will run in the man­age­ment of all Sikh af­fairs in­clud­ing Takht Hazur Sahib and all worldly au­thor­i­ties that chal­lenge this throne of the Almighty will bite dust sooner or later. If you do not take im­me­di­ate steps, you will find Sikhs knock­ing your doors in large num­bers till you lis­ten to their voice and undo the dam­age that you have al­ready done and that which you are con­tem­plat­ing to in­flict.  The gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra does not de­serve the two nom­i­nees that it al­ready has; leave alone giv­ing it more.

The Sikhs and Marathas have had closed ties; both are mar­tial com­mu­ni­ties and the peo­ple of Nanded re­vere Takht Hazur Sahib as their own.  In this 550th year of Guru Nanak, it is time for the peo­ple and gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra to cel­e­brate the bond­ing of Guru Nanak with Bha­gat Namdev and Bha­gat Trilochan who were from that re­gion of the In­dian sub-con­ti­nent. It is time for the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra to give back to the Sikhs what they have taken all these decades and cen­turies.

Sin­cerely
Jag­mo­han Singh
Ed­i­tor, The World Sikh News