WSN Editor writes an Open Letter to RSS Chief protesting and challenging the attempts by the RSS and its affiliates to interfere in Sikh affairs and smudge Sikh philosophy and history through subterfuge and misinformation. He congratulates the Sikh social media campaigners, calling them Sikh Social Society for working overtime and forcing the Sikh leaders to desist from participating in the nefarious designs of the misleading campaign of the RSS.

Dear Mohan Bhagwat Ji.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!!!
My letter is an attempt to get the Sikh voice onto you. As regards your involvement and interference in Sikh affairs, you must be a slightly worried man. Every few years, under one pretext or another, the RSS flagrantly interferes in Sikh affairs, first declaring Sikhs to be Hindus and then beating around the bush to placate the leaders, the masses be damned. This time around it has been different.

Years of sinister and surreptitious meddling, huge investments, affinity with the Badal Dal, the reach of the Indian state, the might of the Modi government -all collectively failed to persuade Sikhs and the Sikh leadership to participate in the pseudo-celebrations of 350 years anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh by the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat at the Talkatora stadium in New Delhi this week.  I am glad that Jathedar Iqbal Singh of Takht Harmandir Ji, Patna Sahib was conspicuous by his absence.

You did have some somewhat-Sikh looking figures -near-renegades, naïve or purblind who want to have the best of both the worlds. They too were able to participate because Sikh activists failed to fathom that they would ditch the community despite a directive from the Akal Takht and against the collective will of the Sikh people. There were some directly associated with your political wing -ministers and former ministers, who had no choice but to be there, even though, I bet, their heart was beating otherwise.

“While it may not be time to celebrate but the Sikh Social Society -the active arm of the Sikhs that uses social media as a means to protest and challenge not only their own leadership but also those like the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat deserves an applause for enforcing the issue and twitching the Sikh religious and political leadership to do a rethink.”

While it may not be time to celebrate but Sikh society, especially the Sikh Social Society -the active arm of the Sikhs that uses social media as a means to protest and challenge not only their own leadership but also those like the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat deserves an applause for enforcing the issue and twitching the Sikh religious and political leadership to do a rethink. The activists, though small in number, who protested on the streets of Delhi were torch-bearers of the spirit of Sikhism.

Not many know but Sukhbir Singh Badal -the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the leadership of the Sikh religious body -the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee were ensconced in the Teja Singh Samundri Hall headquarters in Amritsar for nearly five hours, a day prior to the Delhi meet, reaching the conclusion to disassociate from the RSS Delhi meet primarily under pressure of this very Sikh Social Society campaign.

Actually, Sikhs realised it long back that the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat was nothing but a subset of the RSS -the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has been set up to make inroads into Sikh social, religious and political life.  They are quietly making inroads into Sikh society outside Punjab, but that too will be under the scrutiny of the what I call the Sikh Social Society. It would not be wrong to say, as the Dal Khalsa has aptly put it, “the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat is an illegitimate offspring of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Sikhs cannot own it.”

Your speech at the ostensible 350 years of Guru Gobind Singh celebrations smacked of the agenda of the RSS. You want to abrogate religious leaders of all religions, especially Sikhism, as saviours of Hindus and Hinduism and all religious leaders as Indian leaders. Let me say this loud and clear: Guru Gobind Singh established the Khalsa Panth -The Sikh Commonwealth -focussed God-wards and dedicated to the establishment of an egalitarian and pluralistic society, which is miles apart from the Indian social and political set up.

“Today, the Sikhs are more alert than ever before and technology is also on our side. I strongly suggest that Nagpur take lessons from Amritsar and Anandpur Sahib and accept the uniqueness of the Sikh nation.”

The acumen all the RSS and BJP leaders, including the Home Minister Rajnath Singh, will not be able to convince the Sikhs about the “Indian-ness” of Guru Gobind Singh, his ideals and his contribution to humankind.  At the function, the Indian Home Minister attempts to lure us by saying that they are removing 100 Sikh names from the black list. Who created the list? India. Who is removing the names? India. Touting sops as gifts is a thing of the past, we can now see through.

Sikhs are not born to save. We believe in Sarbat da Bhala -welfare of all humankind, and we have a clear distinct identity -in total variance to the Brahmanical society that RSS believes in. We are not the upholders of Indian ideology, we have our own.  All attempts to undermine our distinctiveness by calling us “elder brothers”, “saviours” and the like is nothing but an attempt to assimilate us into the cauldron of Brahmanism and we simply refuse to be so incorporated.

Our Gurus unambiguously emphasized our identity in Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Arjan Sahib, the fifth master states:

“I am not a Hindu, nor am I a Muslim. My body and breath of life belong to Allah-Ram, the God of both.”

Our writers, from time to time have written books reiterating that we are a distinct people. In response to the likes of you, Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha wrote a book, entitled, “Hum Hindu Nahin.”

We know that a sub-section of Article 25 of the Indian constitution considers Sikhs as Hindus, but that will not stop us from fighting for our legitimate position as a distinct people.  We wish you to recall that this section was publicly burnt by Parkash Singh Badal of your ally party -the Shiromani Akali Dal, in the early stages of his establishment as a Sikh leader, in the seventies and eighties of the last century,

I am sure that you will be doing brainstorming -which is a trademark RSS activity when something like this goes terribly wrong. You call it manthan. Let me offer you a suggestion. Nagpur must learn something from Moscow. Through the good offices of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Russia tried to dissuade Sikhs from religion and make Punjab society atheistic. They pumped millions of roubles, tonnes of literature and nurtured hundreds of activists, but they miserably failed. Except for the Punjab Book Shop in Chandigarh and some diehard university teachers and journalists, Punjab is as religious as it was prior to the Moscow onslaught in the last century.

 

The Rashtriya Sikh Sangat has been in existence for a long time. Undoubtedly, it manages to make inroads into Gurdwaras, sometimes influences the Akal Takht leadership too through its “reach” but overall, it has failed to establish the Brahmanised form of Sikhism that it has as its mission.  We have our internal problems and challenges and we will sort them out. There are many things that Sikhs do not do or do because of their affinity with Hindu society. However, that should not be construed as a weakness.

Today, we are more alert than ever before and technology is also on our side. I strongly suggest that Nagpur take lessons from Amritsar and Anandpur Sahib and accept the uniqueness of the Sikh nation.

“I am convinced based on your acts of omission and commission that RSS is nothing but a Racial Slurs Society, which in its zeal to establish a one language, one religion, one personal law, one water source, one nation mission is institutionally spreading hatred and misinformation.”

I am convinced based on your acts of omission and commission that RSS is nothing but a Racial Slurs Society, which in its zeal to establish a one language, one religion, one personal law, one water source, one nation mission is institutionally spreading hatred and misinformation.

I want you to follow the golden words of the tenth master Guru Gobind Singh. Legend has it that when confronted about the question of superiority of one religion over another, Guru Sahib said, “Tumko tumhara khoob, humko hamara.” -You be happy with your means to reach God, let me be happy with mine.

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So, please don’t mess with Sikhs and Sikhism.

Your truly
Jagmohan Singh