For­mer Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC, for­mer Delhi MLA of the BJP-SAD, newly-ac­cepted mem­ber of the BJP, covert friend of the In­dian Home Min­is­ter and all things BJP, the new con­fi­dence-trick­ster and fraud­ster of the Sikhs and scam­ster of DS­GMC funds, as many cases of mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion pend­ing in courts –Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa has thrown an­other chal­lenge to the Sikhs in Delhi and the com­mu­nity at large by rein­duct­ing him­self as the Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC through sheer force of his newly-found pow­ers. WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh ar­gues that Sikhs must ac­cept the chal­lenge head-on and de­feat his ne­far­i­ous de­signs and send him pack­ing -lock, stock and bar­rel.

ON THE FIRST DAY OF TWENTY-TWENTY-TWO, In­di­a’s rul­ing right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party took the first step to­wards em­broil­ing the apex Sikh body in Delhi -the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee into a le­gal im­broglio cour­tesy of the per­ni­cious machi­na­tions of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa -the self-styled Sikh pa­tri­arch -the newly self-anointed mes­siah of Sikhs in the In­dian Di­as­pora and a new di­rect en­trant to the BJP, al­beit his ear­lier ties are too well-known.

De­feated as a mem­ber of the DS­GMC in the re­cently-con­cluded elec­tions, dis­qual­i­fied to be a nom­i­nee of the SGPC af­ter fail­ing a ba­sic Pun­jabi and Gur­bani test, abused the Gur­d­wara Elec­tion Com­mis­sioner in pub­lic, vowed to foist him­self as the Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC by hook or by crook, Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa, a one-time Delhi MLA of the BJP has taken the Sikhs for a royal ride on an os­ten­si­bly firm and unas­sail­able sad­dle pro­vided by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The lesser avatar of the BJP -the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi is play­ing the clas­sic spoil­sport through its hold over the of­fice of the Gur­d­wara Elec­tion Com­mis­sion. 

In one stroke of with­draw­ing his res­ig­na­tion sub­mit­ted a month ago and storm­ing the of­fices of the DS­GMC at Gur­d­wara Rak­ab­ganj Sahib, through the might of the Z-se­cu­rity cover, re­cently show­ered on him by his friend Amit Shah -the In­dian Home Min­is­ter, Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa has put the sta­tus of DS­GMC into jeop­ardy, put Gur­d­wara man­age­ment on the mat and made a laugh­ing stock of the Sikhs in Delhi with his Aaya Ram-Gaya Ram tac­tics. 

The Badal Dal, who mis­un­der­stood Sirsa all this while, or per­haps Sirsa went up the lad­der up­stag­ing them, could not have done worse. It res­ur­rected an­other mem­ber who had re­signed from the DS­GMC -Kul­want Singh Baath, who was Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Sirsa-led DS­GMC cab­i­net, re­signed and con­tested elec­tions as the Sarna-led Delhi Akali Dal.  He also “took back his own res­ig­na­tion given to Sirsa” and is now the of­fi­ci­at­ing Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC.  For one month, Harmeet Singh Kalka did not ac­cept the res­ig­na­tion of Sirsa, nor did he do any­thing to en­sure ac­cep­tance as there seemed to be unclar­ity in the rules and reg­u­la­tions that gov­ern such sit­u­a­tions un­der the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Act 1971.

A 24 x 7 x 365 ac­tive Pan­thic Watch­dog Board mon­i­tor­ing the work of these in­sti­tu­tions from a Pan­thic an­gle is the need of the hour. 

Gov­ern­ment au­thor­i­ties of whichever party have made in­roads into the work­ing of all Takht Com­mit­tees and higher in­sti­tu­tions of the Sikhs. At the Takht Abchal­na­gar Hazur Sahib Com­mit­tee in Nanded, Ma­ha­rash­tra, the Takht Har­mandir Ji Patna Sahib Com­mit­tee in Bi­har and now the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee right in the heart of In­di­a’s cap­i­tal Delhi, one can eas­ily see how fla­grantly they trans­gress law, deco­rum, dig­nity and Sikh in­ter­est.  The work­ing of the Gur­d­wara regime un­der the Jammu and Kash­mir Gur­d­waras and Re­li­gious En­dow­ment Act is also un­der a cloud. As re­gards the prime apex body -the ubiq­ui­tously known Par­lia­ment of the Sikhs -Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee -its en­tire work­ing lacks trans­parency, di­rec­tion and res­olute­ness and reeks of gov­ern­men­tal and po­lit­i­cal party di­rect and in­di­rect in­ter­fer­ence at all lev­els.

In the midst of all this, es­pe­cially in Delhi, the Sikh San­gat, the Gur­d­wara Com­mit­tees, the Sikh non-gov­ern­men­tal bod­ies, the mis­sion­ary so­ci­eties, the Kir­tan groups, the only bad-mouthing so­cial me­dia war­riors, the well-mean­ing and eas­ily gullible schol­ars, for­mer bu­reau­crats and ex­perts who get eas­ily do­mes­ti­cated by the SGPC and DS­GMC, et al, are guilty of willy-nilly ac­cept­ing the pre­sent im­passe. 

In the midst of all this, es­pe­cially in Delhi, the Sikh San­gat, the Gur­d­wara Com­mit­tees, the Sikh non-gov­ern­men­tal bod­ies, the mis­sion­ary so­ci­eties, the Kir­tan groups, the only bad-mouthing so­cial me­dia war­riors, the well-mean­ing and eas­ily gullible schol­ars, for­mer bu­reau­crats and ex­perts who get eas­ily do­mes­ti­cated by the SGPC and DS­GMC, et al, are guilty of willy-nilly ac­cept­ing the pre­sent im­passe. 

So, where do we go from here? All forms of de­mo­c­ra­tic and civil protests must be taken up against Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa and his ilk.  His im­age must be smashed and the Sikh San­gat of Delhi must not al­low him to en­ter the do­main of the DS­GMC or any Sikh af­fairs. It is a lit­mus test for Sikhs in Delhi and they must pass it and set in mo­tion a new trend of clear­ing the rut from the Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment sys­tem. 

So, where do we go from here? All forms of de­mo­c­ra­tic and civil protests must be taken up against Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa and his ilk.  His im­age must be smashed and the Sikh San­gat of Delhi must not al­low him to en­ter the do­main of the DS­GMC or any Sikh af­fairs. It is a lit­mus test for Sikhs in Delhi and they must pass it and set in mo­tion a new trend of clear­ing the rut from the Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment sys­tem. 

Last but not the least, it is our con­sid­ered opin­ion that the work­ing of these in­sti­tu­tions can be­come bet­ter if the pro­vi­sions of their re­spec­tive Acts and Rules are stream­lined ac­cord­ing to pre­sent times and needs and the anom­alies in the Acts are fully re­dressed.  

A 24 x 7 x 365 ac­tive Pan­thic Watch­dog Board mon­i­tor­ing the work of these in­sti­tu­tions from a Pan­thic an­gle is the need of the hour. WSN is will­ing to take on the bat­tle -head-on! Any tak­ers?