Fed up with dilly-dal­ly­ing and lack­lus­tre ap­proach of Sikh bod­ies and po­lit­i­cal par­ties, Sikh ac­tivists have come to­gether to con­vene a Pan­thic As­sem­bly on 20-21 Oc­to­ber 2018 in Am­rit­sar of 117 mem­bers from Pun­jab and the Di­as­pora, aim­ing to char­ter a path of de­moc­ra­ti­sa­tion of Sikh polity, through a dis­course of in­clu­sive­ness and col­lab­o­ra­tion, to re­solve Pan­thic is­sues and seek a so­lu­tion to the in­creas­ing sac­ri­lege cases in the Pun­jab.

The pro­posed Pan­thic As­sem­bly by a group of con­cerned in­di­vid­u­als wor­ried about the pre­sent state of af­fairs in the state of Pun­jab and amongst the Sikhs, is a con­certed at­tempt to shape the des­tiny of the com­mu­nity by rein­vig­o­rat­ing the Com­mon­wealth of the Khalsa, wherein Sikh lead­ers of all hues and shades will come to­gether and of­fer their opin­ion on is­sues con­fronting the Sikh peo­ples.  The Pan­thic As­sem­bly will lay the foun­da­tions to nul­lify di­vi­sive ten­den­cies in the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal do­main sup­ported by the en­trenched po­lit­i­cal par­ties and brings in a fresh air of in­clu­sive pol­i­tics.

This Pan­thic As­sem­bly of 20-21 Oc­to­ber 2018 in Am­rit­sar, com­pris­ing 117 mem­bers, is an at­tempt to bring to­gether the young and old, fa­mous and not-so-fa­mous ac­tivists and lead­ers from all walks of life –so­cial, hu­man rights, ed­u­ca­tional, le­gal, re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal, from Pun­jab and the Di­as­pora.  

To­day, in to­tal­ity, the Panth has been side­lined. The Pun­jab As­sem­bly and the “Mini-Par­lia­ment of the Sikhs” –the SGPC and its sis­ter-body –DS­GMC, have re­sorted to rhetoric and sub­terfuge, ob­fus­cated facts and mis­lead the com­mu­nity. This As­sem­bly, on the pat­tern of a Cit­i­zens As­sem­bly, will make the Pan­thic voice of a cross-sec­tion of Sikhs –from po­lit­i­cal par­ties to po­lit­i­cal ac­tivists, from hu­man rights ac­tivists to re­li­gious ac­tivists heard across the Sikh com­mu­nity.

“This Pan­thic As­sem­bly of 20-21 Oc­to­ber 2018 in Am­rit­sar, com­pris­ing 117 mem­bers, is an at­tempt to bring to­gether the young and old, fa­mous and not-so-fa­mous ac­tivists and lead­ers from all walks of life –so­cial, hu­man rights, ed­u­ca­tional, le­gal, re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal, from Pun­jab and the Di­as­pora.“

The 117-mem­ber Pan­thic As­sem­bly will not rep­re­sent ge­o­graph­i­cal con­stituen­cies of Pun­jab but will bring to­gether a spec­trum of Sikh opin­ion mak­ers to give a new di­rec­tion to Sikh polity. 

As planned and pro­posed by the founders, this Pan­thic As­sem­bly will be a trend­set­ter in set­ting up pro­ce­dures and sys­tems whereby is­sues can be ad­dressed and re­solved through di­a­logue, dis­cus­sion and de­bate en­com­pass­ing the world­view of Sikhs. It will be an en­deav­our to re­vive the his­toric method­ol­ogy of the Sikhs to evolve a Gur­mata –a con­sid­ered con­sen­sus on sub­stan­tive is­sues con­fronting the Sikh Na­tion.

The dis­course and de­lib­er­a­tions will be in the Pan­thic do­main and not the po­lit­i­cal do­main on the broad can­vas of the in­ter­est of the Khalsa Panth.  Di­a­logue and not con­fronta­tion will be the tool of the Pan­thic As­sem­bly. The whole thrust in this first Pan­thic As­sem­bly of its kind, will be to evolve a method­ol­ogy for solv­ing the se­ri­ous ques­tion of re­li­gious sac­ri­lege in­ci­dents hap­pen­ing all across Pun­jab by the anti-Sikh net­work. These anti-Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­di­vid­u­als are from within and with­out the com­mu­nity, some with the clear and tacit sup­port of the gov­ern­ment, some with the com­plic­ity of the state forces and oth­ers who are yet to be iden­ti­fied.

Every­body who loves Pun­jab is wor­ried about its fu­ture on all fronts.  Even a cur­sory analy­sis of re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ments in the land of Guru Nanak con­firms that our es­tab­lished in­sti­tu­tions have failed us. Leave alone con­flict res­o­lu­tion at the larger level, we have failed to re­solve our in­ter­nal is­sues and have willy-nilly pro­vided in­roads to ex­ter­nal forces for med­dling in our af­fairs.

“The Pan­thic As­sem­bly will dis­cuss the Com­mis­sion re­ports, iden­tify the guilty re­spon­si­ble for sac­ri­lege and po­lice ex­cesses and sug­gest so­cial, po­lit­i­cal and le­gal ac­tions to be taken up to en­sure such sac­ri­lege in­ci­dents are not re­peated.“

The Barghari Mor­cha seek­ing jus­tice for the killed and in­jured in Oc­to­ber 2015, which has at­tracted thou­sands of com­mon­ers from all across the state of Pun­jab and out­side, the re­ver­ber­a­tions of which have been felt in Haryana, Delhi and Hazur Sahib, Nanded, has over­shad­owed the fudg­ing of the is­sue by the Con­gress party and the rhetor­i­cal re­jec­tion of the prime ac­cused Badal Akali Dal.

Sig­nif­i­cantly, both are ob­fus­cat­ing the is­sue by recit­ing the rhetoric of “ex­ter­nal forces out to desta­bilise Pun­jab”. The Akali Dal, led by Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal is re­spon­si­ble for al­low­ing the sac­ri­lege to hap­pen and the killing of the in­no­cent pro­test­ers whereas the Con­gress is go­ing out all out to de­lay the ju­di­cial pro­ce­dures against the al­legedly guilty po­lice and po­lit­i­cal fig­ures.

The in­ter­na­tional pres­ence of the com­mu­nity re­quires sound lead­ers well-versed in mod­ern di­a­logue and ne­go­ti­at­ing skills. The Pan­thic As­sem­bly must be seen as a step in that di­rec­tion.  The Sikh voice on sub­stan­tive world is­sues must be heard but for that to hap­pen, the Sikh voice has to be iden­ti­fied and strength­ened. 

The need of the hour is self­less lead­ers who hold the love of the Panth in their heart and mind, who are wed­ded to Gur­mat ide­ol­ogy and ded­i­cated to up­hold the in­ter­est of the com­mu­nity at all times at all lev­els, ir­re­spec­tive of what­ever sac­ri­fice is needed.

A con­sid­ered analy­sis of the re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ments in Pun­jab leads to the un­der­stand­ing that our es­tab­lished re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tions –namely the SGPC, DS­GMC, Akal Takht Sahib and more have failed the Sikhs in pro­vid­ing lead­er­ship and re­solv­ing short-term and long over­due con­flicts.

“For a very long time, ac­tivists and thinkers of the com­mu­nity have been yearn­ing for de­moc­ra­ti­sa­tion of the Sikh polity and this Pan­thic As­sem­bly may be seen as a be­gin­ning of that much-needed process.“

Those who should have ac­cepted their mis­takes are rais­ing the bo­gey of “Panth in dan­ger” and the dan­ger­ous slo­gan “Hindu-Sikh affin­ity en­dan­gered”.  Specif­i­cally, the rul­ing Con­gress party and their pre­de­ces­sors -the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal has to­tally failed to re­spond to the Pan­thic Mor­cha at Barghari Kalan, started on June 1 for jus­tice for the sac­ri­lege in­ci­dents and its fall­out at Kotka­pura, Barghari and Be­hbal Kalan.

The Pun­jab gov­ern­ment has re­leased the Com­mis­sion re­ports and en­acted a scripted lame-duck ses­sion of the Pun­jab As­sem­bly, with­out any fol­low-up ac­tion.  The Pun­jab gov­ern­ment has af­forded an es­cape route for the high-rank­ing ac­cused po­lice of­fi­cials as well as the then po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship. The state is play­ing games for im­punity to po­lice and po­lit­i­cal ca­ma­raderie.

The two of­fi­cial re­ports –of­fi­cial re­ports of the Jus­tice Zora Singh Com­mis­sion and the Jus­tice Ran­jit Singh Com­mis­sion.  Since 1947, on Sikh is­sues –wa­ters, land rights, or­gan­ised and con­spir­a­to­r­ial blas­phemy against Sikhs, In­di­a’s Com­mis­sions have given anti-Sikh rul­ings and through ad­min­is­tra­tive wran­gles de­layed de­ci­sion-mak­ing and ac­tion ren­der­ing the whole ex­er­cise mean­ing­less. 

The Jus­tice Markandey Katju Com­mis­sion, formed by hu­man rights group in Pun­jab has in­dicted the po­lice of­fi­cials for their ac­tions and the po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship for their com­plic­ity in the fir­ing at Be­hbal Kalan. 

The Pan­thic As­sem­bly will dis­cuss the Com­mis­sion re­ports, iden­tify the guilty re­spon­si­ble for sac­ri­lege and po­lice ex­cesses and sug­gest so­cial, po­lit­i­cal and le­gal ac­tions to be taken up to en­sure such sac­ri­lege in­ci­dents are not re­peated.

Very sadly, the in­cum­bent of the tem­po­ral au­thor­ity of the Sikhs –the Akal Takht Sahib and his com­pan­ion Jathedars of other Takhts have also not lead the com­mu­nity from dark­ness to light. They have ei­ther toed the line of the party that con­trols the SGPC or have main­tained a deaf­en­ing si­lence on sub­stan­tive is­sues, which has not only di­luted their au­thor­ity but has also re­sulted in Sikhs los­ing hope in jus­tice from this ex­alted his­toric in­sti­tu­tion of the com­mu­nity. 

For a very long time, ac­tivists and thinkers of the com­mu­nity have been yearn­ing for de­moc­ra­ti­sa­tion of the Sikh polity and this Pan­thic As­sem­bly may be seen as a be­gin­ning of that much-needed process.

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A Pan­thic team com­pris­ing Gi­ani Ke­wal Singh, Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann, Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, Harpal Singh Cheema, Kan­warpal Singh, Jaswinder Singh Ad­vo­cate, Navki­ran Singh Ad­vo­cate, Prof. Jag­mo­han Singh, Rana In­der­jit Singh, Amar­jit Singh Khadoor Sahib, Mas­ter Har­bans Singh, Bibi Kul­want Kaur, Khushal Singh will form the or­gan­i­sa­tional panel for se­lec­tion of the 117 mem­bers, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the is­sue to be dis­cussed and the for­mat that the Pan­thic As­sem­bly would fol­low. For­mer Jathedars, po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, civil and hu­man rights ac­tivists, lawyers, so­cial ac­tivists and oth­ers have con­firmed par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Pan­thic As­sem­bly.