In view of the ur­gent need to ad­dress the pos­si­bil­ity of as many as 65,000 votes get­ting can­celled be­cause the ex­ist­ing vot­ers failed to at­tach pho­tos to their ex­ist­ing votes, newly formed grass­roots ini­tia­tive The Sikh Col­lec­tive has writ­ten to the Delhi gov­ern­ment min­is­ter in charge of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions Ra­jen­dra Pal Gau­tam and the Di­rec­tor of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions Naren­der Singh seek­ing a 3-week ex­ten­sion to the Voter Reg­is­tra­tion process for the DS­GMC Elec­tions 2021.

CIT­ING COVID19 NEW MU­TANT SCARE, BIT­ING COLD weather, re­li­gious and so­cial ac­tivists and vol­un­teers in­volve­ment in self­less ser­vice at the Farm­ers Mor­cha, acute lack of pub­lic­ity and aware­ness by the as the key rea­sons, the let­ter says that it would be a grave in­jus­tice if such a large chunk of the Sikh cit­i­zens are de­prived of their right to fran­chise.

The let­ter also says that such post­pone­ments have hap­pened in the past and there is no need for any panic re­ac­tion by the Di­rec­torate to push the elec­tions with­out ad­e­quately com­plet­ing the poll processes, step by step, at all stages.

Nearly two months back, ‘The Sikh Col­lec­tive’ had made an ap­peal to the Delhi Sikh San­gat for aware­ness about the need to whole­somely par­tic­i­pate in the voter reg­is­tra­tion process of the DS­GMC.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the min­is­te­r­ial meet­ings re­gard­ing the con­duct of DS­GMC elec­tions, The Sikh Col­lec­tive has made wide-rang­ing sug­ges­tions to make the on­line process of voter reg­is­tra­tion smooth and user-friendly.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive has also sought the in­ter­ven­tion of Ajit Pal Singh -the newly-ap­pointed Mem­ber of the Delhi Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion.

The more than 50 plus Sikh per­son­al­i­ties, who had ear­lier signed an ap­peal to the Sikh San­gat have now writ­ten a joint let­ter to the Delhi Min­is­ter seek­ing an ex­ten­sion of time for voter reg­is­tra­tion. They have cat­e­gor­i­cally stated, “The Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions must not rush with the sched­ule. The un­der­tak­ing to the Delhi High Court re­gard­ing smooth and timely elec­tions does not mean that we can delete 70,000 votes. This would be grossly un­fair.”

“It is dis­gust­ing and heart-wrench­ing to see bad lead­ers get­ting elected every now and then, but for all of this, we are to blame,” said Balkar Singh, a de­vout Sikh of Paschim Vi­har, re­gard­ing the lack­lus­tre re­sponse of the Sikh San­gat. He added, “We will have no ground to protest if bad lead­ers are elected again if we as the San­gat do not pur­sue the DS­GMC elec­tions in right earnest.”

The World Sikh Cham­ber of Com­merce led by Dr Parmeet Singh Chad­dha has also writ­ten to the Delhi gov­ern­ment ask­ing for an ex­ten­sion of date of the voter reg­is­tra­tion process.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive has been writ­ing to the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions seek­ing ex­ten­sions and mak­ing pos­i­tive sug­ges­tions for a free and fair elec­tion to the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive is fol­low­ing up on the wide-rang­ing pub­lic­ity and aware­ness cam­paign through var­i­ous plat­forms of The World Sikh News for the last three months in Eng­lish, Pun­jabi and Hindi re­gard­ing var­i­ous as­pects of the DS­GMC polls.

“The aware­ness cam­paign of The World Sikh News has been a re­mark­able and timely one. I hope it im­pacts the par­tic­i­pa­tion in the DS­GMC elec­tions, said young Sikh ac­tivist Bal­jeet Singh.

The sig­na­to­ries to the doc­u­ment in­clude:  S. Rand­hawa, for­mer Vice-Ad­mi­ral, Balkar Singh, ac­tivist, Sri Sukhmani Sahib Sewa So­ci­ety, Paschim Vi­har, New Delhi, Biren­dra Kaur, For­mer Pres­i­dent, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies, Cha­ran­jeet Singh, so­cial ac­tivist, New Delhi, Chi­ran­jiv Singh, for­mer Ad­di­tional Chief Sec­re­tary, Govt. of Kar­nataka, Dal­bir Singh, for­mer chair­man, Cen­tral Bank of In­dia, Dal­jeet Singh, Ad­vi­sory Board Di­rec­tor, United Sikhs, In­dia, Dr Mo­hin­der Singh, for­mer Mem­ber, Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nor­ity Ed­u­ca­tional In­sti­tu­tions, Dr Sar­dara Singh Johl, Chan­cel­lor, Cen­tral Uni­ver­sity, Pun­jab, Goon­jeet Singh Chauhan, Ar­chi­tect, Gur­preet Singh Bawa, for­mer pres­i­dent, Gu­rud­wara De­fence Colony, Harb­ha­jan Singh, for­mer chair­man, Al­la­habad Bank, Harb­ha­jan Singh Sahni, so­cial ac­tivist, co-founder Nishkam, Har­cha­ran Singh Josh, For­mer Mem­ber, Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties, Har­cha­ran Singh Nag, In­dus­tri­al­ist –Con­struc­tion, Harki­rat Singh, Man­ag­ing Trustee, Sat­nam Sarab Kalyan Trust, Chandi­garh, Harneek Singh, Ac­tivist, Sikh Youth Foun­da­tion, Ra­jouri Gar­den, In­der­bir Singh Alag, Se­nior Ad­vo­cate, Iqbal Singh Anand, In­dus­tri­al­ist, Iz­zat Singh, Char­tered Ac­coun­tant, Con­venor, Baba Nanak Di Fauj, Jag­mo­han Singh, Con­venor, The Sikh Col­lec­tive, Gurmeet Singh, Co­or­di­na­tor, The Sikh Col­lec­tive, Gur­preet Singh, Pres­i­dent, Global Sikh Coun­cil, Ravin­der Singh Ahuja, Vice Pres­i­dent, The Sikh Fo­rum, Gi­ani Ke­wal Singh, For­mer Jathedar, Takht Damdama Sahib, Jo­gish­war Singh, for­mer Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, Kawaljit Singh Oberoi, Char­tered Ac­coun­tant, K S Ahluwalia, Mo­ti­va­tional Coach, Kul­vin­der Singh Sawh­ney, for­mer Joint-Sec­re­tary and Joint Reg­is­trar-Gen­eral, Kul­want Singh, Se­nior Vice-Pres­i­dent, Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Mum­bai, Lt Gen (Retd.) Dal­bir Singh Sidhu, Lt. Col. (Retd.) J. P. S. Sahi, Gen­eral Man­ager, Guru Granth Sahib Vidya Kendra, New Delhi, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) R. S. Su­jlana, Mem­ber, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies, Chandi­garh, Maj Gen (Retd.) P. S. Mal­ho­tra, Pres­i­dent, Gu­rud­wara De­fence Colony, Man­jeet Singh Nay­yar, Mem­ber, Tamil Nadu State Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion, Man­jit Singh Bu­talia, Ad­vo­cate, New Delhi, Man­jeev Singh Puri, IFS, for­mer Am­bas­sador, Man­meet Singh, Bol­ly­wood ac­tor, Short-film pro­ducer and ac­tor, N. S. Gu­jral, for­mer chair­man, Pun­jab & Sind Bank, Par­tap Singh, DIG (Retd.) Sec­re­tary-Gen­eral, The Sikh Fo­rum, Prin­ci­pal Prab­hjot Kaur, for­mer Pres­i­dent, In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies, Push­pin­der Singh Chopra, Pres­i­dent, Sikh Fo­rum, Delhi, R. S. Sodhi, for­mer Judge, Delhi High Court, Ra­jbir Singh, Con­venor, Pan­thak Saanjh, Delhi, Ra­jin­der Singh, lead­ing trans­porter, Pres­i­dent, Guru Nanak Col­lege, Chen­nai, S. B. Singh, Char­tered Ac­coun­tant, Sukhbir Singh Dhu­pia, Fi­nan­cial ex­pert, Surinder Jit Singh Pall, Chair­man, Kes Samb­hal Par­char Sanstha, Tejbir Singh Rand­hawa, for­mer Air Mar­shal, Tridi­vesh Singh Maini, Pol­icy An­a­lyst, Upin­der Singh Dhindsa, Lawyer, Supreme Court of In­dia