In the recently unfolding events in the last four days in Jammu and Kashmir, the DSGMC leadership from Delhi, especially DSGMC President Manjinder Singh Sirsa has played a dangerously vitriolic role, exposing the Sikh community to ridicule and refrain.  The traditional unity of the Sikhs and Kashmiri Muslims has been jeopardised and damaged. Fortunately, saner elements are on the task to undo this.  WSN editor Jagmohan Singh says that the cases of the marriages under dispute are personal and societal issues and there is no scope whatsoever of any political or politicised intervention.  He calls for a sensitive and sensible approach and an all-around condemnation of the role played by Manjinder Singh Sirsa and his ilk.

JIHAD is a sacred word for Muslims and I respect it. Morcha is a sacred word for the Sikhs and I respect it. Yuddha is a sacred word for the Hindus and I respect that too.  However, the sobriquet of ‘Love Jihad’ is a political term, coined in a derogatory manner against individuals and communities professing Islam and I detest it.

Let us face reality. Whether it is Sikhs, Muslims or Hindus -all communities, per se, do not like, endorse or support inter-faith marriages.  All communities go into a tizzy in case a lady member of their community marries or attempts to marry out of faith. The reaction of families and religious groups ranges from accepting the will of the lady, regrettable resignation to fate, counselling to the two individuals to dissolve their marriage or a conflagration of abduction, falsification of facts, et al, as in the present cases in Jammu and Kashmir. 

Everybody knows that given the interactions between individuals of communities in the global village that we live in, it is well-nigh impossible to stop such marriages, notwithstanding the doctrine of various faiths or its interpretation by religious leaders.  Law is also a factor favouring individual decisions in the matter.

Of course, it is up to the families to nurture their children either to remain introverts or be extroverts as far as the interfaith marriage of their male and female child is concerned. 

Some protagonists of religions advocate proselytization as a way of increasing numbers and Sikhs see themselves at the receiving end because their religious preachers and missionaries refrain from such endeavours.  History also stands testimony to this.

The excursion of Manjinder Singh Sirsa from New Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir will cost the Sikh community dearly if it does not condemn their activities in one voice.  This is not to say that Manjit Singh GK did any better as he too toed the BJP line.  Paramjit Singh Sarna too got carried away with emotions, though he could have adopted a sensitive approach.    

The excursion of Manjinder Singh Sirsa from New Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir will cost the Sikh community dearly if it does not condemn their activities in one voice.  This is not to say that Manjit Singh GK and Paramjit Singh Sarna have played out any better.  

Frankly, the Sikhs of Delhi and Punjab must take out a Morcha outside the office of Manjinder Singh Sirsa for making sinister efforts to mar the hard-earned respect of Sikhs and Kashmiri Muslims for each other over the last few decades, clearly at the behest of his BJP masters. 

It has taken a lot of effort, love, respect and democratic behaviour and interaction to put behind us, the animosity of the Mughal period, the angst of the 1947 partition of Punjab mayhem and murder on streets by both sides.   

The elders in the Sikh community of Jammu and Kashmir -of various organisations and the enlightened sections of the Sikh youth have not taken lightly what has happened and have reiterated the bonding between the majority Kashmiri Muslim and minority Sikh communities. 

Manjinder Singh Sirsa is the new Master Rachhpal Singh of the Sikh community. 

Using the widespread Sewa of the Sikh community across Delhi and worldwide as the fulcrum, totally ignoring his duties as the President of the DSGMC and side-tracking burning issues of the Sikhs in Delhi, Manjinder Singh Sirsa is the new Master Rachhpal Singh of the Sikh community.  Nobody asked him to do Sewa for which he takes so much credit and is now attempting to get religious and political mileage.

For those new to the lexicon, Master Rachhpal Singh in Delhi was the toady of the Union government in everything that the Shiromani Akali Dal in particular and the Sikhs, in general, would do for community interests. In less than a week, we have found a Master Rachhpal Singh in Manjinder Singh Sirsa. Sadly and very unfortunately, the Shiromani Akali Dal and even the Akal Takht Sahib have not opened their mouth against this. On the contrary, they have become partners in the crime of misinformation.

Sadly and very unfortunately, the Shiromani Akali Dal and even the Akal Takht Sahib have become partners in the crime of misinformation.

From the standpoint of Sikh ethics and civil behaviour, the role of the political leadership and that of some wayward social media warriors in Jammu and Srinagar speaking the anti-Islam language is highly regrettable and condemnable. 

Sirsa’s ‘victory march’ from Srinagar to New Delhi, ending with obeisance at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib with a Kashmiri Sikh lady and her new-found husband has no religious or social sanction and the Sikh community, even though benumbed and silent at the quick turn of events, does not endorse it in any manner. 

Sirsa’s ‘victory march’ from Srinagar to New Delhi, ending with obeisance at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib with a Kashmiri Sikh lady and her new-found husband has no religious or social sanction and the Sikh community, even though benumbed and silent at the quick turn of events, does not endorse it in any manner. 

Fear psychosis is writ large on the face of the lady married twice in a few weeks and whisked away to Delhi is a tamasha orchestrated in a political and extrajudicial manner.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa’s belligerence must be defeated by all means. It is time for a wholesome outreach by the Sikhs and Kashmiri Muslims, notwithstanding the possibilities of detention by the Jammu and Kashmir administration. 

Manjinder Singh Sirsa is playing BJP’s dirty game of dividing the two communities in Jammu and Kashmir. With their back to the wall for having fooled the Kashmiri leadership through their visit to Delhi, the BJP has used their stooge Manjinder Singh Sirsa extremely well to foment “trouble in Kashmir.” It is extremely disturbing that Manjinder Singh Sirsa should take up issues without talking to any of the Sikh and Kashmiri leaders in Kashmir.  He has already done a lot of damage to the Sikh image and now with his pro-BJP talk, stands fully exposed.

Egged on by Sirsa, the Jammu Sikh youth has uttered insensitive diatribes and they would do good to themselves and the community by regretting the same at the earliest opportunity. In any case, let the Kashmiri Muslims know that no Sikh, worth his salt, will say a word against either Islam or Hinduism or any religion for that manner, but will strongly oppose religious aggression from Sikh, Muslim or Hindutva quarters.

Let the Kashmiri Muslims know that no Sikh, worth his salt, will say a word against either Islam or Hinduism or any religion for that manner.

The well-documented, organised and proven case of grooming of Sikh girls in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Yet, there too, the perpetrators are seen as individuals accused of doing so without tainting communities to which they belong.

Let it also go down to the entire Muslim community or any other beneficiary of the Sewa of the Sikhs that the Sikhs’ Sewa is not for any pecuniary interests or returns. If someone acknowledges, it is soul-satisfying; if it is ignored, we will still continue to do it. 

Those of us speaking in retaliatory terms are unaware of the tradition of Bhai Ghanaiya Ji.  Our Sewa is for Sarbat da Bhala -the welfare of all humankind. Period. We do not expect anything in return.  No individual Sikh or Sikh Sewa organisation did anything during the Covid19 pandemic or any other time of selfless service to earn something. Sociologist Dipankar Gupta in his recent article has acknowledged this by saying that it is routinisation of the Sewa whereby it comes so easily to a Sikh. 

Sewa mein Kisi par Koi Ehsaan nahi hai -No favour to anyone.

A Sikh speaking with a haughty attitude towards his selfless service is in actuality not doing selfless service and is defaming Sikhs and Sikhism. Sewa mein Kisi par Koi Ehsaan  nahi hai -No favour to anyone.

We are historically and traditionally bound to play our role of protecting the honour of women, the weak, the downtrodden and the underdogs, notwithstanding their faith, caste and political leaning and we will continue to do so.