Con­tin­u­ing the WSN cam­paign for pro­bity in DS­GMC, the ed­i­tor of WSN writes a cau­tion­ary con­grat­u­la­tory note to the newly elected Delhi leg­is­la­tor

Dear Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa
Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh!

With the Grace of Akalpu­rakh and the over­whelm­ing sup­port of the elec­torate from the Ra­jouri Gar­den con­stituency in Delhi, par­tic­u­larly of the Sikh res­i­dents of the area, you have won this Delhi As­sem­bly seat with a thump­ing ma­jor­ity.

Though I have strong reser­va­tions with some­one like you, who af­ter hav­ing won the DS­GMC from Pun­jabi Bagh con­tested the MLA seat, I wish you well in your new jour­ney into the po­lit­i­cal life of Delhi.

I would like to add a strong word of cau­tion. Though you were the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal can­di­date, you con­tested and won on the BJP sym­bol. The me­dia has to­day touted it as a BJP vic­tory. This di­choto­mous ap­proach does not au­gur well for the Sikhs, par­tic­u­larly with the cur­rent fire­brand ag­gres­sive Hin­dutva pol­icy of the BJP.

Dur­ing the course of elec­tion­eer­ing, we have al­ready seen at­tempts by you to en­gage with the elec­torate com­pro­mis­ing Sikh prin­ci­ples and prac­tices. This is very un­for­tu­nate. Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh was a sec­u­lar po­lit­i­cal leader par ex­cel­lence; he did a lot for fol­low­ers of all re­li­gions; for Hin­dus and Mus­lims in his king­dom and the many Chris­t­ian stal­warts in his cab­i­net. How­ever, he never stooped down to show a holier than thou at­ti­tude by fol­low­ing an­other per­son’s re­li­gious rit­u­als.

When lead­ers of your stature do this, it shames the com­mu­nity and un­der­mines the in­de­pen­dent sta­tus of the Sikh re­li­gion.  My fear is that with vic­tory in your lap, the BJP will willy-nilly cre­ate an at­mos­phere whereby you will be in­volved in ac­tiv­i­ties in­im­i­cal to the Sikh faith.  I be­seech you to be care­ful and wise. You should con­tinue to break new grounds in your po­lit­i­cal ca­reer but not at the cost of un­der­min­ing Sikh ethos. If you stand your ground, no­body will force you, it is when you show weak­ness that oth­ers force you do things.

Im­por­tantly, it is in the fit­ness of things that you should re­sign from your mem­ber­ship of the DS­GMC. The Eng­lish proverb is apt, “you can­not have the cake and eat it too.” It is im­proper, un­eth­i­cal and un­law­ful to en­joy perks and fa­cil­i­ties from two pub­lic of­fices.  You would be set­ting a good prece­dent if you re­sign from the mem­ber­ship of the DS­GMC and re­frain from par­tic­i­pa­tion in any ac­tiv­ity dur­ing your po­lit­i­cal life that would un­der­mine Sikhism and de­fame Sikhs.

With best wishes and prayers for suc­cess in your po­lit­i­cal life.

Jag­mo­han Singh
Ed­i­tor, World Sikh News