WSN Ed­i­tor salutes the he­roes of the Gurmeet Ram Rahim case, chas­tises the vil­lains who fell in line and ap­peals to the Sikh com­mu­nity to get its act to­gether by re­dis­cov­er­ing its true ideals. Read the text and view the videos to know the whole truth.

I salute the two Sad­hvis for their dar­ing to write about the hell that they were go­ing through at the Sirsa dera along with many other young girls.

I salute po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tor Jagdeesh Thag­gar, who de­spite be­ing pres­sured into drop­ping the case of abuse of the two vic­tims, con­tin­ued his in­ves­ti­ga­tion to un­earth more facts and de­tails which fi­nally nailed the pseudo-saint.

I salute the two young girls for their re­mark­able de­ter­mi­na­tion to re­lent­lessly pur­sue the case for 15 years de­spite be­ing dis­suaded by their fam­i­lies and af­ter be­ing threat­ened many times by the dera peo­ple with death and de­struc­tion.

I salute Mr Ram­chan­dra Chat­tra­p­ati, who run­ning a small-town, small-cir­cu­la­tion news­pa­per Poora Sach, nearly two decades back, showed amaz­ing au­dac­ity to pub­lish the let­ter which the two young vic­tims wrote to the then Prime Min­is­ter of In­dia, Mr Atal Bi­hari Va­j­payee, charg­ing Gurmeet Ram Rahim of sex­ual abuse and as­sault.

I salute Mr Ram Chan­dra Chat­tra­p­ati’s son -An­shul Chat­tra­p­ati for his re­mark­able stead­fast­ness, who even af­ter know­ing fully well that his fa­ther was killed by the goons of the dera for pub­lish­ing the sex­ual abuse story, still con­tin­ues to pur­sue the case of the mur­der of his fa­ther in the same Panchukala court with huge dif­fi­cul­ties and per­sonal ex­pense with­out sup­port from any quar­ter what­so­ever.

“I clar­ify to the In­dian pub­lic, the In­dian me­dia and all saner el­e­ments on so­cial me­dia that many cults of Pun­jab have been propped up by the In­dian state to weaken the Sikhs and to di­lute the true cre­den­tials of Sikhism. To name the dan­ger­ous few, the pseudo-Ni­rankaris, the Noormahlias and the Dera Sauda Sirsa.”

I salute Ran­jit Singh, the brother of one of the two young vic­tims, who was also killed by the Dera hit squad when he ques­tioned the dera chief and his co­terie about the sex­ual as­saults on the two com­plainants.

I salute Khatta Singh -the erst­while chauf­feur of Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who co­op­er­ated with the dar­ing and painstak­ing Tehelka team to ex­pose the mis­deeds of the Dera and was later on mur­dered with­out a trace.

I salute the CBI team of in­ves­ti­ga­tors and lawyers, which in­ves­ti­gated the mat­ter with­out fear and favour de­spite the whole po­lit­i­cal es­tab­lish­ment against them.

I salute the Spe­cial CBI Court judge, Jagdeep Singh, who has shown ex­em­plary courage and was not cowed down by the thou­sands of sup­port­ers and goons around his Panchkula court clearly meant to over­awe him. I also salute him for not buck­ling un­der pres­sure of the clearly-vis­i­ble com­plic­ity of the state with the Dera chief and the Dera Sauda Sirsa, know­ing fully well that hence­forth his life and that of his fam­ily would not be the same for all times to come.

I salute all shades of the In­dian me­dia, who showed courage in re­port­ing live in the midst of cultist fol­low­ers who did not open their mouths and stood amidst low-rank­ing po­lice per­son­nel who looked help­less and pow­er­less. I com­mend and their fear­less­ness in re­port­ing even when their vans and equip­ment was be­ing de­stroyed and burnt.

I salute the mod­ern so­cial me­dia ac­tivists -the new brave men and women on the In­ter­net who have re­lent­lessly ex­posed the Sauda dera and for whom truth is supreme.

I DE­NOUNCE, CON­DEMN, QUES­TION, CALL UPON, CLAR­IFY and AP­PEAL

I de­nounce the Sauda Sirsa dera and its pseudo-mas­ter Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh In­saan who stands fully ex­posed of dan­ger­ous cultist be­hav­iour, mas­querad­ing as a so­cial or­gan­i­sa­tion, draw­ing upon sus­te­nance, sup­port and pa­tron­age from In­dian state au­thor­i­ties and politi­cians. I am clear that this is be­gin­ning of the end of the dera as mul­ti­ple sen­tences await him and his ill-got­ten wealth is be­ing in­ves­ti­gated, his po­lit­i­cal ac­com­plices are shy to ac­cept their “friend­ship” and his “fol­low­ers” would hope­fully know that ul­ti­mately truth pre­vails and life is not a big drama.

“I salute the Spe­cial CBI Court judge, Jagdeep Singh, who has shown ex­em­plary courage and was not cowed down by the thou­sands of sup­port­ers and goons around his Panchkula court clearly meant to over­awe him. I also salute him for no buck­ling un­der pres­sure of the clearly-vis­i­ble com­plic­ity of the state with the Dera chief and the Dera Sauda Sirsa, know­ing fully well that hence­forth his life would not be the same for all times to come.”

I con­demn the open con­nivance and com­plic­ity of all po­lit­i­cal lead­ers and their par­ties -the Con­gress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, In­dian Na­tional Lok Dal, et al, who gave fund­ing and re­ceived funds and votes through dera pa­tron­age.

I de­nounce the to­tal sub­mis­sion of the Takht lead­er­ship of the Sikhs, which suc­cumbed be­fore the po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal in “ex­on­er­at­ing” Gurmeet Ram Rahim for blas­phemy.

I call upon all sec­tions of the In­dian me­dia to un­der­stand that the Sauda Sirsa Dera of Gurmeet Ram Rahim is noth­ing but a dan­ger­ous cult, which can cast a spell on its fol­low­ers lead­ing even to death and may­hem, as we saw in Panchkula. All such cults have a pub­lic agenda face -de-ad­dic­tion, blood do­na­tion and clean­li­ness cam­paigns were the face of the Sauda Dera Sirsa, at­tract­ing at­ten­tion, with­out ver­i­fi­ca­tion from none other than In­dian Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi.

I clar­ify to the In­dian pub­lic, the In­dian me­dia and all saner el­e­ments on so­cial me­dia that most cults of Pun­jab have been propped up and en­joy full pa­tron­age from the In­dian state ma­chin­ery to weaken the Sikhs and to di­lute the cre­den­tials of Sikhism. To name the dan­ger­ous few, the pseudo-Ni­rankaris, the Noormahlias and the Dera Sauda Sirsa. They are not sects of Sikhism. The Sikh re­li­gion does not ac­cept schis­matic sects. All of these are as dan­ger­ous as the Dera Sauda, which stands ex­posed now. They too have used sim­i­lar tac­tics in the past ex­cept dur­ing those times, we did not have so­cial me­dia, in­ter­net and a pow­er­ful broad­cast­ing TV medium. All use stone, petrol and weapons to over­awe peo­ple, politi­cians and every­one else who suc­cumbs to their de­signs.  They have sin­is­ter agen­das and they re­sort to ex­trem­ist be­hav­iour in­clud­ing brain­wash­ing, ab­duc­tions, black­mail­ing, sex­ual abuse, cas­tra­tion and mur­ders.

I de­nounce the In­dia TV team, who as al­leged by the for­mer Tehelka team on so­cial me­dia (Op­er­a­tion Jhootha Sauda), has per­haps de­stroyed vi­tal ev­i­dence (gath­ered by the Tehelka team), from its archives re­lat­ing to sex­ual abuse of girls and women and mur­ders in the Sirsa Dera.

I AP­PEAL to the Sikhs of Pun­jab to rise to the oc­ca­sion and un­der­stand the gen­e­sis of the con­flict. If the Sikhs of Pun­jab and else­where had be­friended the poor­est of the poor castes and classes in their midst, there would have been no need to for the likes of the Sad­hvis and their fam­i­lies to flock to Gurmeet Ram Rahim and to be en­ticed by him into his fold.

On the anvil of the 550 years of Guru Nanak’s birth an­niver­sary, it is time to re­align and re­ori­ent fully to the fun­da­men­tals of the Sikh re­li­gion, to over­turn the dam­age that we have in­flicted upon our­selves and re­dis­cover ideals of our Gu­rus.  

Oth­er­wise, while the pseudo-saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim is in jail, many oth­ers are lurk­ing around in and out of Pun­jab and yet an­other one, may be be­ing trained some­where to be propped up soon. Be­ware!