With elec­tions on the anvil in Pan­jaab and In­dia, lead­er­ship is­sues are bound to be in the air. Po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist and an­a­lyst Jagdeesh Singh from the UK, has for long been shout­ing from rooftops about fail­ing Sikh lead­er­ship. WSN pre­sents his views on dy­nam­ics of the con­tem­po­rary Sikh lead­er­ship scene.

Qual­ity and eth­i­cal lead­er­ship is miss­ing across the globe. Na­tions, coun­tries, com­mu­ni­ties in Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, Eng­land (UK), USA and more are frus­trated and an­gry with their lead­ers.  Prime Min­is­ters, Chief Min­is­ters, heads of po­lit­i­cal par­ties are in­vari­ably unin­spir­ing and ques­tion­able per­son­al­i­ties.  Pan­jaab too is in the grip of the same.

Whereas, the land of the in­spir­ing Gu­rus and mar­tyrs –sha­heeds, has a rich and in­vig­o­rat­ing his­tory of rad­i­cal and coura­geous lead­ers: grass-root based fig­ures that rose forth for so­ci­ety and peo­ple, with­out re­ward, and with mas­sive pun­ish­ment and per­se­cu­tion. Those great un­equalled char­ac­ters who de­fine Pan­jaabi his­tory, re­ceived no po­si­tions of of­fi­cial power. Strug­gle and sac­ri­fice was their power. To­day, un­der the en­gulf­ing and con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing cor­rupt In­dian po­lit­i­cal mega-struc­ture, we see the ex­act re­verse. To­day in Pan­jaab, like most of the global world, we are stuck with a sham ar­ray of per­son­al­i­ties, po­lit­i­cal groups, re­li­gious groups, etc; pos­ing and pro­ject­ing them­selves as ‘lead­ers’.

The heroic Pan­jaabi spirit ex­em­pli­fied by the Gu­rus and mar­tyrs -sha­heeds, is not ev­i­dent in the cur­rent breed of front-line per­son­al­i­ties in Pan­jaab pol­i­tics.

The cur­rent In­dian Gen­eral elec­tions of April-May 2019, have once again re­vealed the same com­pe­ti­tion for ‘seats’ and, si­mul­ta­ne­ously, the con­spic­u­ous fail­ure amongst the sup­posed ‘Pan­thic’ cir­cles to unite as a com­mon al­liance for a com­mon pur­pose of Pan­jaab and the Panth. This brings to fore the fun­da­men­tal and press­ing ques­tion of how pro-Panth, pro-Pan­jaab, pro-peo­ple ac­tu­ally are these same fig­ures who pro­fess to be pro Pan­jaab and pro Panth? A close ex­am­i­na­tion of the last three decades re­veals a heart-break­ing de­press­ing pic­ture.

Upon ob­serv­ing their an­tics and fan­fare, one se­ri­ously asks, ‘Is it their agenda sim­ply to make bois­ter­ous noises, cre­ate an il­lu­sion of fight­ing for the Panth and Pan­jaab, but then again and again fail to make any mean­ing­ful im­pact on the gov­er­nance sys­tem of Pan­jaab?’ Like else­where across the In­dian state, Pan­jaab is sub­ject to a crass crude form of elec­tion­eer­ing and ram­pant lead­er­ship con­tests.

Dou­ble-stan­dards, crooked­ness, il­lit­er­acy, lack of skills and com­pe­tence, and a to­tal ig­no­rance and ap­a­thy to world af­fairs: these are the rot­ten char­ac­ter­is­tics of Sikh Pres­i­dents and Jathedaars every­where. The in­di­vid­ual group egos and per­sonal egos, com­bined with an over­rid­ing lack of vi­sion and hon­esty has left them clam­our­ing in their in­di­vid­ual ditches for at­ten­tion and fame. Their loud slo­ga­neer­ing and ra­bid speeches have pro­duced noth­ing tan­gi­ble or pro­gres­sive for Pan­jaab – its peo­ple, its dal­its, its women, its chil­dren.

There is no cul­ture and at­mos­phere of de­mo­c­ra­tic di­a­logue, ac­count­abil­ity and trans­parency. In­stead, nepo­tism, mal­ad­min­is­tra­tion, fi­nan­cial fraud, sus­pi­cion, re­crim­i­na­tion and dis­or­der are dom­i­nant. They are the defin­ing qual­i­ties of the In­dian po­lit­i­cal en­vi­ron­ment. The heroic Pan­jaabi spirit ex­em­pli­fied by the Gu­rus and mar­tyrs –sha­heeds, is not ev­i­dent in the cur­rent breed of front-line per­son­al­i­ties in Pan­jaab pol­i­tics.

1984 was a key marker in cur­rent Pan­jaabi af­fairs. It re­vealed the dif­fer­ence be­tween au­then­tic, ro­bust leader-like per­son­al­i­ties who took a prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand for Pan­jaab and the Panth, giv­ing their lives to bring fur­ther shine and vi­brancy to the on­go­ing Pan­jaabi his­tory; and those who cow­ered into sub­mis­sion and sur­ren­dered to the In­dian state and pro­ceeded to make du­bi­ous deals with it and so forth.

The mon­u­men­tal sac­ri­fices of June 1984 with Sikhs lay­ing down their lives pro-ac­tively, in the face of im­mi­nent death, for the sym­bolic sov­er­eignty and in­de­pen­dence of the fore­most shrine and sym­bol of Pan­jaab against the ag­gres­sive in­tru­sion and tres­pass of the In­dian army and its hu­man and cul­tural geno­ci­dal ac­tions needs em­u­la­tion.  Lead­er­ship is about ac­tion, courage, prin­ci­ple and sac­ri­fice – all com­bined.

Moral vic­tory is de­fi­ance against in­jus­tice and op­pres­sion. Not in win­ning elec­tions un­der a du­bi­ous and cor­rupt sys­tem of mis-gov­er­nance and mis­rule. In­dia is a self-prop­a­gat­ing mess brought about and sus­tained by its se­quence of cor­rupt and de­vi­ous heads of gov­ern­ment. The di­verse peo­ples, who suf­fer this en­dur­ing sys­tem of 70-years, have lit­tle pro­tec­tion against this mighty sys­tem of cor­rup­tion and re­pres­sion. In Pun­jab, like In­dia, we have a pu­tre­fy­ing as­sort­ment of politi­cians and re­li­gious holy men, who be­tween them pro­ject an im­age of cor­rup­tion, lies, bro­ken promises, stag­na­tion, power and con­trol and sub­mis­sion and con­for­mity to the In­dian state power.   Like the world at large, Pan­jaab suf­fers the dis­ease of these bo­gus lead­ers, with their schem­ing and men­tal dis­in­ter­est, seek­ing fame and glam­our in the me­dia.

The in­fa­mous main­stream par­ties in Pan­jaab –the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal and the Con­gress have sim­ply treated Pan­jaab as an elec­tion play­ground; win­ning and los­ing elec­tions be­tween them as they have col­lec­tively abused and sab­o­taged every­thing about Pan­jaab.

To­day, Pan­jaab and its hu­man­ity pre­sent an en­dur­ing vic­tim of the de­ceit, chaos and con­fu­sion of these bands of false lead­ers, in var­i­ous names and la­bels, each vy­ing for po­lit­i­cal of­fice and power. The cur­rent and con­tin­u­ing ar­ray of politi­cians only seek par­lia­men­tary po­si­tions, votes and ma­jori­ties with­out the re­spon­si­bil­ity that comes with it.  They lack per­sonal con­vic­tion and char­ac­ter and their souls are hol­low and con­t­a­m­i­nated. They are a de­crepit bunch, with no in­tel­lec­tual sub­stance or in­tel­li­gence, nor any emo­tional com­mit­ment to the good of Pan­jaab.

It is a damn­ing fact, that over 35-years since the mile­stone 1984 geno­cide, the var­i­ous pos­ing ‘Pan­thic’ groups, de­spite their many num­bers and loud noises and abil­ity to hold large scale gath­er­ings, have en­tirely failed to forge a united front or even a com­mon min­i­mum plan.  In all these years, we have failed to wit­ness a core set of in­spir­ing, prin­ci­pled, dy­namic set of lead­ers, in­side Pan­jaab or else­where.

Dou­ble-stan­dards, crooked­ness, il­lit­er­acy, lack of skills and com­pe­tence, and a to­tal ig­no­rance and ap­a­thy to world af­fairs: these are the rot­ten char­ac­ter­is­tics of Sikh Pres­i­dents and Jathedaars every­where. The in­di­vid­ual group egos and per­sonal egos, com­bined with an over­rid­ing lack of vi­sion and hon­esty has left them clam­our­ing in their in­di­vid­ual ditches for at­ten­tion and fame. Their loud slo­ga­neer­ing and ra­bid speeches have pro­duced noth­ing tan­gi­ble or pro­gres­sive for Pan­jaab – its peo­ple, its dal­its, its women, its chil­dren.

The in­fa­mous main­stream par­ties in Pan­jaab –the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal and the Con­gress have sim­ply treated Pan­jaab as an elec­tion play­ground; win­ning and los­ing elec­tions be­tween them as they have col­lec­tively abused and sab­o­taged every­thing about Pan­jaab.

The al­ter­na­tive groups like the Dal Khalsa, Ak­hand Keer­tani Jatha, Dam Dami Tak­sal, Akali Dal Am­rit­sar, Sikh Stu­dents Fed­er­a­tion and more, de­spite their vo­calised best in­ten­tions, have equally be­tween them demon­stra­bly failed to take any tan­gi­ble steps to­wards mak­ing pos­i­tive in-roads into the Pan­jaab po­lit­i­cal map. They too have en­tirely failed to have an open, de­mo­c­ra­tic di­a­logue with the Pan­jaabi-Sikh masses, about their ac­tual or lack of strate­gies, ac­tions, ob­jec­tives, achieve­ments, non-achieve­ments and fail­ures. In­stead it has all been a one way, over­whelm­ing traf­fic of telling the peo­ple and not ask­ing the peo­ple. Pan­jaabis do not de­serve this!

For the last 75 years, we have seen no de­mo­c­ra­tic progress in our Gur­d­wara com­mit­tees, or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions. It is al­ways, a chaotic ar­ray of mobs, dom­i­nant groups, thugs, schem­ing their way along.

To­gether these bod­ies and groups have cre­ated a sus­tained ob­struc­tion to de­mo­c­ra­tic trans­parency. There is an acute lack of scrutiny, even handed di­a­logue and a clear pres­ence of ar­ro­gance and a pre­ten­tious claim to them hav­ing a mo­nop­oly on rep­re­sent­ing the Panth. They have cre­ated a con­tin­u­ing dis­con­nect be­tween these or­gan­i­sa­tions and the wider masses. They have not been able to do any­thing for the de­moc­ra­ti­sa­tion of the highly cor­rupt ‘Par­lia­ment of the Sikhs’ –the SGPC.

Our Takht ‘Jathedaars’ are noth­ing more than in­tel­lec­tu­ally hol­low, ig­no­rant and a self-serv­ing co­terie of in­di­vid­u­als, vy­ing against each other.  Every other day, we see a scan­dal on the hori­zon. There is a to­tal ab­sence of ethics, hon­esty, prin­ci­ple in our main­stream lead­er­ship – in Gur­d­waras, in or­gan­i­sa­tions, in po­lit­i­cal groups. For the last 75 years, we have seen no de­mo­c­ra­tic progress in our Gur­d­wara com­mit­tees, or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions. It is al­ways, a chaotic ar­ray of mobs, dom­i­nant groups, thugs, schem­ing their way along.

Lead­er­ship is not one sin­gle per­son. It is a shared, col­lec­tive think­ing turned into pos­i­tive ac­tion.  Lead­er­ship is not about po­si­tion. It is about en­gage­ment, lis­ten­ing and de­mo­c­ra­tic di­a­logue. It is about pas­sion to take things for­ward in the face of state op­pres­sion and op­po­si­tion. It is the earnest de­sire to make things bet­ter and have the guts and re­source­ful­ness to as­pire and dare for new things.

In­side Pan­jaab and abroad, the Sikh lead­er­ship per­son­al­i­ties have be­tween them cre­ated a cir­cus and the­atrics of rhetoric and self-im­agery, with no ac­com­pa­ny­ing pro­gres­sive vi­sion or ac­tion for change. No peo­ple or na­tion can progress with such rot­ten and per­verse lead­er­ship.

The Gu­rus and our mar­tyrs –sha­heeds are our model lead­ers. They demon­strated those crit­i­cal qual­i­ties on the front­line of life and strug­gle, through per­sonal strug­gle and sac­ri­fice. They in­spired us through their ex­am­ple. We need no more clar­ity and lessons about au­then­tic lead­er­ship, than them.

Lead­er­ship is a shared re­spon­si­bil­ity across a peo­ple and so­ci­ety.  Lead­er­ship is not one sin­gle per­son. It is a shared, col­lec­tive think­ing turned into pos­i­tive ac­tion.  Lead­er­ship is not about po­si­tion. It is about en­gage­ment, lis­ten­ing and de­mo­c­ra­tic di­a­logue. It is about pas­sion to take things for­ward in the face of state op­pres­sion and op­po­si­tion. It is the earnest de­sire to make things bet­ter and have the guts and re­source­ful­ness to as­pire and dare for new things.

It is time to demon­strate that spar­rows can be­come hawks and, that jack­als can be­come li­ons. The Panth and Pan­jaab de­serve a new and bet­ter lead­er­ship.