In the wake of the deaths of 44 CRPF per­son­nel in Kash­mir, Hindu zealots across In­dia are in­dulging in moboc­racy against Kash­miris, In­dian lead­er­ship jin­go­is­tic, Dal­its blame Man­nuwadis, In­dian civil so­ci­ety vir­tu­ally silent, Sikh Samar­i­tans pro­vide sup­port, suc­cour and so­lace to Kash­miri stu­dents un­der duress, Pan­thic lead­ers seek po­lit­i­cal res­o­lu­tion. The Kash­mir val­ley has rec­i­p­ro­cated with an ‘open-arm’ ap­proach to ‘our Sikh brethren.’  Hu­man­ity won the day, ha­tred lost the game.

Amidst cries of seek­ing re­venge against Pak­istan by Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi and the ul­tra na­tion­al­is­tic and jin­go­is­tic main­stream TV and print me­dia in the coun­try, san­ity and hu­man­ity has still found a small place.

“The Sikhs have fol­lowed the hal­lowed tra­di­tion of Guru Nanak Sahib and the Kash­miris have rec­i­p­ro­cated in true Kash­miri hos­pitable man­ner. I am re­ally proud to be a Sikh and a Kash­miri.”

Jag­mo­han Singh Raina, Chair­per­son, All Par­ties Sikh Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee

In­ter­na­tional hu­man­i­tar­ian aid agency Ravi Singh’s Khalsa Aid led from the front and pro­vided all lo­gis­ti­cal sup­port to Kash­miri stu­dents in­clud­ing food and trans­porta­tion to their homes. Gur­d­waras in Chandi­garh and Mo­hali opened Gur­d­waras and pro­vided stay to the stranded stu­dents from neigh­bour­ing Haryana and Ut­tarak­hand, where they are un­der siege of the right-wing forces, who see them also as ‘en­e­mies’.  The col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties also told the stu­dents that ‘they can­not pro­vide guar­an­tee of their safe­ty’, forc­ing the stu­dents to pack and leave for their homes. The Sikh bik­ers from Jammu, barged into the ma­raud­ing mobs and chal­lenged the Hindu zealots from harm­ing the Kash­miris and saved them.

The call by Sarab­jit Singh Ghu­man and other Face­book ac­tivists to sup­port all Kash­miris in dis­tress was well re­ceived by the com­mu­nity and de­spite some Sikh el­e­ments join­ing their Hindu zealots, Sikhs re­sponded in a spirit of kind­ness and ‘Sar­bat da Bhala.’

The re­sponse of the peo­ple in the Kash­mir has been over­whelm­ing. Schools, col­leges, doc­tors, traders and the like have opened their hearts to ‘our brave­heart Sikhs.’ For­mer Chief Min­is­ter and Kash­mir leader Omar Ab­dul­lah too thanked the Sikhs for their sup­port. “We thank the Sikhs for their timely sup­port”, said one stu­dent af­ter an­other, who reached him peace­fully in trans­porta­tion arranged by Khalsa Aid and other Gur­d­waras.

Thank you Khalsa Aid. Thank you Sikhs.

Kash­miri stu­dents upon reach­ing home in Sri­na­gar

The vengeance call against the Pak­istani army chief by Pun­jab chief min­is­ter Amarinder Singh was for­tu­nately matched by an­other call of sup­port for all Kash­miri stu­dents and res­i­dents in the Pun­jab.

While Prime Min­is­ter Modi said that the time for talks is over, the Pun­jab Chief Min­is­ter, was at his in­sen­si­ble best when on the floor of the Pun­jab As­sem­bly he said, “82 lives of Pak­ista­nis in lieu of the 41 lives of the CRPF per­son­nel.” Dis­miss­ing his tall talk as noth­ing but child­ish bravado, Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­warpal Singh asked, “The CM has to un­der­stand that war mon­ger­ing at such times in a re­tal­ia­tory tone will only add fuel to the fire. Does the Cap­tain re­alise that Pun­jab can be­come a the­atre of war and Pun­jabis will be the worst-hit, should the Cap­tain’s bravado meet an equal re­sponse from the other side of the fence?”

Pun­jabi Ekta Party leader Sukh­pal Singh Khaira and Pun­jab Min­is­ter Navjot Singh Sidhu, who talked rea­son and sought a po­lit­i­cal res­o­lu­tion of the Kash­mir prob­lem, came un­der at­tack from Hindu zealots and the BJP and Akali Dal lead­er­ship.  How­ever, Dal Khalsa re­sponded and said, “Though we have po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences, yet they had touched the right chord. Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sukh­pal Singh Khaira did not toe the of­fi­cial line blindly and ap­plied balm in the course of the mass hys­te­ria build-up.”

Dal Khalsa fur­ther added, “Kash­mir is a war zone.  The lives of free­dom fight­ers and In­dian se­cu­rity forces are pre­cious for their re­spec­tive peo­ples and na­tions, and the only way to har­bin­ger peace in the re­gion is to re­solve the Kash­mir con­flict po­lit­i­cally and not to deal with it mil­i­tar­ily.”

“Kash­mir is a war zone.  The lives of free­dom fight­ers and In­dian se­cu­rity forces are pre­cious for their re­spec­tive peo­ples and na­tions, and the only way to har­bin­ger peace in the re­gion is to re­solve the Kash­mir con­flict po­lit­i­cally and not to deal with it mil­i­tar­ily.”

Kan­warpal Singh, Spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa

Hail­ing the Sikhs, who have sup­ported Kash­miri stu­dents and oth­ers, Dal Khalsa com­mended them for ris­ing to the oc­ca­sion in true Sikh tra­di­tion.

Speak­ing to the World Sikh News from Sri­na­gar, the All Par­ties Sikh Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee chief Jag­mo­han Singh Raina said, “The Sikhs have fol­lowed the hal­lowed tra­di­tion of Guru Nanak Sahib and the Kash­miris have rec­i­p­ro­cated in true Kash­miri hos­pitable man­ner. I am re­ally proud to be a Sikh and a Kash­miri.”

“The tourists vis­it­ing Kash­mir from across the world will vouch for Kash­miri hos­pi­tal­ity and the over­whelm­ing grat­i­tude now be­ing shown by the Kash­miri peo­ple to the Sikhs is a trib­ute to Sikh-Kash­miri kin­ship. Ul­ti­mately, hu­man­ity has pre­vailed,” he added.