It is quite ob­vi­ous that elec­tions of any kind are the last thing on the mind of any per­son in these times, any­where in In­dia and es­pe­cially in Delhi. Yet, to fo­cus on en­sur­ing that there is no un­nec­es­sary way­ward ac­tion, se­nior Sikh cit­i­zens of Delhi and be­yond have writ­ten an ur­gent mis­sive to Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Delhi Anil Bai­jal, ask­ing him for de­fer­ment of DS­GMC elec­tions by a few months. They have called for the post­pone­ment of the elec­tion of mem­bers of the au­gust body for 3-4 months, fol­lowed by proper and trans­par­ent con­sul­ta­tion with all the par­tic­i­pat­ing groups and other re­li­gious ac­tivists tak­ing a keen in­ter­est in the DS­GMC polls. WS­N’s Gurmeet Singh re­ports.

THROUGH­OUT THE LAST TEN DAYS OF ELEC­TION­EER­ING prior to the sched­uled elec­tion day 25 April, there were fre­quent prayers and pe­ti­tions for post­pone­ment of DS­GMC elec­tions by var­i­ous con­cerned cit­i­zens and Sikh cit­i­zens of Delhi but the Delhi ad­min­is­tra­tion, in­clud­ing the Delhi CM and LG, acted at the last minute.

Nev­er­the­less, Sikhs in Delhi heaved a sigh of re­lief that the elec­tions were post­poned. The note which was sent by the Di­rec­torate to the par­tic­i­pat­ing groups on 23 April, had the last line which said, “the fresh elec­tion sched­ule will be an­nounced shortly,” which has caused anx­i­ety to many, forc­ing the se­nior cit­i­zens to send an ur­gent ap­peal to the Delhi gov­ern­ment.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive let­ter, which has also been sent to Delhi CM Ke­jri­wal, Gur­d­wara Elec­tions Min­is­ter Ra­jin­der Pal Gau­tam and Di­rec­tor of Gur­d­wara Di­rec­torate Narinder Singh read “With all the deaths and may­hem around, un­der such stren­u­ous cir­cum­stances, even to talk about elec­tions will be in­hu­man. Peo­ple are gasp­ing for oxy­gen and elec­tions should be the last thing on any­one’s mind.”

“With all the deaths and may­hem around, un­der such stren­u­ous cir­cum­stances, even to talk about elec­tions will be in­hu­man. Peo­ple are gasp­ing for oxy­gen and elec­tions should be the last thing on any­one’s mind.”

The let­ter nar­rated how DS­GMC can­di­dates are still re­cov­er­ing and re­cu­per­at­ing from COVID19 and one can­di­date -Jag­tar Singh Jagga of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi, from Ward 45 Khureji Khas has suc­cumbed to the virus.

“The AAP gov­ern­ment has ex­tended the lock­down to 3 May and given the ex­pec­ta­tion that the cur­rent pan­demic is likely to peak in the sec­ond week of May, it can eas­ily be con­cluded that we are see­ing a long gap be­fore the DS­GMC elec­tions are con­ducted.”

Ex­press­ing deep con­cern for all, the let­ter which has stal­warts of the Sikh Fo­rum in­clud­ing Push­pin­der Singh, Pres­i­dent, Ravin­der Singh Ahuja, Vice Pres­i­dent, DIG Par­tap Singh (Retd), Sec­re­tary, Maj. Gen PS Mal­ho­tra, for­mer Pres­i­dent, Gur­d­wara Sahib, De­fence Colony Lt. Gen Dal­bir Singh Sidhu Surinder­jeet Singh, Chair­man, Kesh Samb­hal Prachar Sanstha, New Delhi, Baldev Singh, Ad­min­is­tra­tor, Guru Granth Sahib Vidya Kendra, Mehrauli, New Delhi, Dr Preeti Kaur Ahuja, Pres­i­dent, Gur­d­wara Sahib, De­fence Colony, New Delhi, Gur­preet Singh Bawa, past Pres­i­dent, Gur­d­wara Sahib, De­fence Colony, New Delhi, Air Vice-Mar­shal P S Bhan­goo, Sikh Fo­rum, New Delhi Cha­ran­jeet Singh, so­cial ac­tivist, Gur­preet Singh, Pres­i­dent, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies Jag­mo­han Singh, Con­venor, The Sikh Col­lec­tive, Gurmeet Singh, Co­or­di­na­tor, The Sikh Col­lec­tive and Harneek Singh, Sikh Youth Foun­da­tion, Ra­jouri Gar­den, New Delhi as sig­na­to­ries says, “No one in the gov­ern­ment should think of jeop­ar­dis­ing the lives of thou­sands of vot­ers, can­di­dates, party lead­ers, MCD em­ploy­ees, Delhi gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, staff of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions and Delhi po­lice per­son­nel, who will all have to of­fi­ci­ate for the con­duct of elec­tions. It will be far too risky for the me­dia to re­port elec­tion­eer­ing and the con­duct of elec­tions.”

Gur­preet Singh of The In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies Chandi­garh cau­tioned that “It is time to come to­gether, sup­port each other, fight the deadly times and get back to a nor­mal life.”

Samir Singh of the Sikh Cham­ber of Com­merce said, “In my view, the elec­tions must be post­poned for at least six months. I am even will­ing to think that the whole process must start afresh, though I am con­scious of the con­cerns that the in­cum­bent group can mis­use au­thor­ity.”

“It is time to come to­gether, sup­port each other, fight the deadly times and get back to a nor­mal life.”

Gur­preet Singh, Pres­i­dent, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies, Chandi­garh

Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi leader Paramjit Singh Sarna has asked for the ap­point­ment of a re­ceiver and Aam Akali Dal chief Gurvin­der Singh Saini has sought the ap­point­ment of an ad­min­is­tra­tor. Their fears are that the Badal Dal, which is presently gov­ern­ing the DS­GMC should be re­strained from in­dulging in “em­bez­zle­ment of funds, con­sid­er­ing that there are many cor­rup­tion cases pend­ing in court against them.”

How­ever, the re­search by the WSN team leads us to con­clude that there is no such pro­vi­sion in the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Act and the Rules made there­un­der for the ap­point­ment of an om­buds­man to overview the work of the body when its term is over. . The only rule is that the Di­rec­tor Gur­d­wara Elec­tions can use his dis­cre­tion to post­pone elec­tions, should his as­sess­ment lead him to do so.

“In my view, the elec­tions must be post­poned for at least six months. I am even will­ing to think that the whole process must start afresh, though I am con­scious of the con­cerns that the in­cum­bent group can mis­use au­thor­ity.”

Samir Singh, Founder Sikh Cham­ber of Com­merce

A down-to-earth Sikh ac­tivist Aman­deep Singh hit the nail on the head ex­press­ing the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh masses, “I do not un­der­stand the le­gal po­si­tion but I be­lieve that the Panth must some­how re­strain the Sirsa party from mak­ing any ex­tra­or­di­nary ex­pen­di­ture or start­ing any big pro­ject with Gur­d­wara funds.”

UP­DATE to this story at 2200 Hours IST

The Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions has is­sued a no­ti­fi­ca­tion to­day, dated 27 April 2021 say­ing that “the re­li­gious par­ties, the can­di­dates and in­cum­bent Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee are hereby ad­vised to strictly ad­here to the Model Code of Con­duct in let­ter and spirit. Any vi­o­la­tion of MCC shall be dealt with as per rules and ac­tion as deemed fit shall be taken in this re­gard.”

While this is wel­come, the Model Code of Con­duct is an old doc­u­ment of 2014 and needs im­prove­ment and amend­ments to make it rel­e­vant as per cur­rent needs.