This is not a Bollywood story but history in the making tells World Sikh News editor Jagmohan Singh to Bollywood actress Kangna Ranaut in an Open Letter in response to her denigrating tweet against octogenarian Sikh women participating in the Farmers agitation on the Delhi border.

DEAR KANGNA RANAUT GREETINGS FROM PUNJAB! The Indian film industry has never been kind to Punjab or the people of Punjab despite the fact that it draws substantial talent from Punjab and extols the patriotism of the people of Punjab for its commercial purposes. Barring some rare exceptions, the Indian film industry, its mainstream actors have shown Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular as buffoons and dumb-witted.

Your sinister and demeaning tweet about the octagenarian women participants in the ongoing farmers’ protest does not come as a complete surprise. However, your tweet has reached the nadir of hatred against minorities -first against the Muslims and now against the Sikhs.

It will do you a lot of good to know about the life, times and challenges of the Sikh women who were and are engaged in preparing and serving food to the farmer protestors at the various entry points of Delhi. One of the grandmothers, when told about your tweet about them smilingly said, “She needs to come and spend a day with me at my farm (not farmhouse) and see what I do and then am sure she would take back her words.” Such is the stuff the Sikh elderly women are made of. In case you do not know, the grandmother of the two sons of the Tenth Master Guru Gobind Singh chose death when dissent was not allowed by the then Mughal rulers.

These grandmothers in Delhi have a legacy which they are following. Dissent and rebellion flow through their veins. Through them, it flows through the veins of the next generation. We cannot be cowed down by any governmental authority. They have the backing of Sikh history, the spirit to send their menfolk -old and young in the face of struggle and battle, to save the honour of the people. Death or fear of death has never held them back.

Do you realise that the grandmothers at Shaheen Bagh Morcha and at the Farmers Protest Morcha at Kundli have brought the Modi-Shah government on its knees?

The conscientious people of Punjab have led the all-India farmers’ agitation against the challenge of the Narendra Modi government and are determined to take it to its logical conclusion. You are advised not to indulge in troubled waters. This is not a Bollywood film story, no film shooting is taking place at the five borders gheraoing Delhi, but real-life history in the making. Only the naive and the utterly biased like you will choose to ignore or condemn at this own peril.

Jurist Francesco Frank Caprio who serves as the chief municipal judge in Providence, Rhode Island, USA and whose judicial work televised in the serial, “Caught in Providence” is extremely popular on social media proudly says, “grandmothers are the backbone of families and societies. They are unsung heroes of our lives, doing everything that their children and grandchildren want.” Please watch this serial if you have not done so far.

Coming from a lady actor like you, known to play offbeat roles, I expected that you would admire their grit, admiration and commitment in braving the winter cold and work tirelessly to provide food to the thousands who are at the receiving end of the anti-farmer black laws recently enacted by Narendra Modi government. In your enthusiasm to please Narendra Modi, who prevented the demolition of your house, you have gone overboard to please the Indian Prime Minister and viciously denounce the farmers’ protest.

Do you realise that the grandmothers at Shaheen Bagh Morcha and at the Farmers Protest Morcha at Kundli have brought the Modi-Shah government on its knees?

Sikhs are a very emotional community and they love and respect their elders. Around the world, Sikhs are in tears watching their men, women and children, young and old on the streets of Delhi.

Through your tweet, you have caused more disconcertment and denigration. You have caused deep hurt to the Sikh psyche. Sikhs have a long memory and they do not forget such assaults and insults. The reaction to your tweet, as you may know by now has been strong and acerbic. Yet, Sikhs can be forgiving, so the least you can do is to publicly apologize to the entire Sikh community. The most you can do is to ask the commercial-minded, politically submissive and socially dumb Bollywood film industry to come out openly in favour of the farmers’ struggle for their legitimate rights.

I hope and pray that better sense will prevail. Will it?

Jagmohan Singh
Editor, The World Sikh News