The Deputy Chief Min­is­ter of Megha­laya Pre­stone Tyn­song de­clared yes­ter­day that his gov­ern­ment had al­lo­cated Rs. 20 mil­lion to be given to the tra­di­tional au­thor­ity – the Syiem of Hima Myl­lieum and take over the land where the poor Sikhs have been liv­ing for two cen­turies. Lo­cal lawyers and groups in­im­i­cal to the Sikh pres­ence in Shil­long are spread­ing ha­tred against the Sikhs. They have even chal­lenged the right of the DS­GMC to visit Shil­long. In view of all these fright­en­ing de­vel­op­ments, it is time for Sikhs to get their act to­gether writes WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh, who has been keep­ing a close watch on the de­vel­op­ments.

Fac­ing a bar­rage of threats and chal­lenges, af­ter tak­ing stock of the state­ment of Deputy Chief Min­is­ter Pre­stone Tyn­song to get the ti­tle to the dis­puted land within a week, an emer­gency meet­ing of the res­i­dents of the Har­i­jan Colony was held at the lo­cal Gur­d­wara Sahib, where the Sikh San­gat de­cided to fight back more strongly and unit­edly for their le­git­i­mate rights.

In a bizarre move, a lo­cal or­ga­ni­za­tion has chal­lenged the re­cent visit of the DS­GMC del­e­ga­tion say­ing it was in­ter­fer­ence in the af­fairs of Megha­laya. On the other hand, DS­GMC Pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa, while speak­ing to the San­gat, dur­ing his visit last week had said, “Thou­sands of Sikhs from all over the coun­try will de­scend on Shil­long to pro­tect you and your rights.”

It is now time for Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa to ho­n­our that promise.

“Thou­sands of Sikhs from all over the coun­try will de­scend on Shil­long to pro­tect you and your rights. Your rights will be pro­tected un­der all cir­cum­stances at all fo­rums.”

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa Pres­i­dent, DS­GMC

The Sec­re­tary of Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee -Gur­jit Singh sent a strong note to the East Khasi Hills Dis­trict Shil­long Deputy Com­mis­sioner Ms Isawanda Laloo, IAS urg­ing her not to take cog­nizance of any rep­re­sen­ta­tions to her in the mat­ter of the Har­i­jan Colony, Shil­long as the mat­ter was sub­ju­dice. The let­ter also sought the pro­vi­sion of more se­cu­rity to the poor Sikh dwellers of the Har­i­jan Colony and the se­cu­rity and safety of their re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions.

It may be pointed out that in the last few days, some self-styled lead­ers and ac­tivists had asked the Deputy Com­mis­sioner of East Khasi Hills Dis­trict for re­lo­ca­tion of the res­i­dents of the Har­i­jan Colony in the Pun­jabi Lane area.

The Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee has cat­e­gor­i­cally re­torted back by say­ing that as the mat­ter is sub­ju­dice in the High Court of Megha­laya at Shil­long as well as the apex court of the land -the Supreme Court of In­dia, any in­ter­ven­tion by any of­fice in this re­gard would amount to con­tempt of court.

Speak­ing to the World Sikh News, Gur­jit Singh said, “These state­ments are cre­at­ing ha­tred against the poor Sikhs. In their zeal to get pub­lic­ity and po­lit­i­cal mileage, these out­ra­geous ut­ter­ances are en­dan­ger­ing the peace and se­cu­rity of the peo­ple of the area. For the last two hun­dred years, we have been peace-lov­ing peo­ple, we have worked very hard to earn our liveli­hood and we have con­tributed sub­stan­tially to the wel­fare of the peo­ple of the area.”

“The Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee will not suc­cumb to any pres­sure and will be con­strained to pro­ceed legally in the mat­ter,” he added.

The Shil­long Sikhs have also to­tally rub­bished the call for re­lo­ca­tion of the Sikhs un­der the Megha­laya Trans­fer of Land (Reg­u­la­tion) Act 1971 as made by a lo­cal lawyer.  Gur­jit Singh called the move mis­guided, ir­rel­e­vant and sin­is­ter.  Even the De­ity Chief Min­is­ter of Megha­laya in his press con­cur­rence yes­ter­day dis­missed this idea.

Gur­jit Singh, talk­ing to WSN said, “To make ref­er­ence to the Act, 50 years hence is malafide and a clear breach of the sta­tus quo or­der of the High Court. In fact, it is a con­tempt of court.”

Speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymity, lo­cal Sikh ladies told WSN that they have been suf­fer­ing un­told hard­ships and pain since the last many years, yet we will fight back.

“We will live and die here in the Pun­jabi Lane colony, the an­ces­tral land of our fore­fa­thers. No power on earth can forcibly evict us.”

Gur­jit Singh, Sec­re­tary, Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee

Speak­ing to WSN, his­to­rian and an­thro­pol­o­gist Dr Hi­madri Baner­jee said as per cus­tom­ary law, which was preva­lent when Sikhs were in­vited by the British Army to serve in Shil­long, the Sikhs are the tech­ni­cal own­ers. Dur­ing that pe­riod 200 years ago, oral his­tory was preva­lent.

The pre­sent sit­u­a­tion of the poor Sikhs in Shil­long is a lit­mus test for the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment and the Union Gov­ern­ment of In­dia. It is also a lit­mus test for Sikh in­sti­tu­tions to stand by their brethren.