In a dis­play of de­ter­mi­na­tion, Sikh devo­tees, stu­dents, ac­tivists, and Gur­d­wara lead­ers as­sem­bled at the gates of Takht Sri Ha­ri­mandir Ji Patna Sa­heb, de­mand­ing the im­me­di­ate con­duct of over­due gen­eral elec­tions for Takht Ha­ri­mandirji Patna Sahib Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee. WSN re­ports from Patna.

The newly formed Patna Sa­heb Panth Se­wak Jatha, which has vowed to pro­tect Sikh in­ter­ests at Patna Sa­heb and east­ern In­dia, or­gan­ised a protest dharna voic­ing col­lec­tive frus­tra­tion over the de­lib­er­ate and con­spir­a­to­r­ial de­lay in the Takht Ha­ri­mandir Ji Patna Sa­heb Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee’s elec­toral process.

“The pre­sent com­mit­tee has long over­stayed its man­date and con­tin­ues to take sub­stan­tive de­ci­sions with­out any le­git­i­mate au­thor­ity,” de­clared Cha­ran­jeet Singh, Pres­i­dent of the Jatha and for­mer Gen­eral Sec­re­tary of the Takht Com­mit­tee. “This unau­tho­rized ex­ten­sion is not only un­de­mo­c­ra­tic but also deeply con­cern­ing for the Sikh com­mu­nity at large.”

Cha­ran­jeet Singh, ac­com­pa­nied by key ac­tivists in­clud­ing Iqbal Singh Lucky Bagga, Ran­bir Singh Deepak Lamba, Ma­haraja Singh Sonu, Gur­sha­ran Singh Ma­jor Chawla, and Udai Singh, led the protest amid ris­ing anger over what the or­ga­niz­ers called “friv­o­lous le­gal hur­dles” ob­struct­ing the elec­toral process.

Pro­tes­tors dis­played plac­ards in Pun­jabi, Eng­lish, and Hindi, con­demn­ing the cur­rent com­mit­tee and the ju­di­cial de­lays in find­ing the elec­tions.

“The cur­rent com­mit­tee has grossly out­lived its man­date and is brazenly mak­ing ma­jor de­ci­sions with­out any le­gal or moral au­thor­ity, This il­le­git­i­mate ex­ten­sion is a bla­tant as­sault on de­mo­c­ra­tic prin­ci­ples and poses a se­ri­ous threat to the in­tegrity and trust of the Sikh com­mu­nity.”

Cha­ran­jeet Singh, Pres­i­dent, Patna Sa­heb Panth Se­wak Jatha Com­mit­tee.

A mem­o­ran­dum ad­dressed to the Dis­trict Judge of Patna is set to be sub­mit­ted on 26 March, urg­ing im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion to up­hold de­mo­c­ra­tic prin­ci­ples and re­store le­git­i­macy to the com­mit­tee’s gov­er­nance.

“The pre­sent of­fice bear­ers are even de­ceiv­ing the Patna High Court by mak­ing bo­gus promises,” the press note al­leged, adding that “no steps are be­ing un­der­taken un­der one false pre­text or the other.”

Cha­ran­jeet Singh warned that if elec­tions are not sched­uled with­out de­lay, the Panth Se­wak Jatha is pre­pared to es­ca­late the ag­i­ta­tion, in­clud­ing launch­ing a sus­tained, peace­ful, daily dharna till the elec­tions are held.

“No­body should have il­lu­sions that they will con­tinue their dark deeds for long. We will be­gin a long and sus­tained Pan­thic Mor­cha if elec­tions are not held in time.”

Patna Sahib Panth Se­wak Jatha

Speak­ing to WSN, Cha­ran­jeet Singh said, “The Patna Sa­heb Panth Se­wak Jatha is the first such body formed at Patna in over a cen­tury, to over­see the work­ing of the Takht Patna Sa­heb Com­mit­tee. We will con­tinue to do our Pan­thic duty to pro­tect the in­ter­ests of the Khalsa Panth. We ap­peal to the Sikh San­gat in Patna and else­where to join hands to rid the Patna Sa­heb Com­mit­tee of the mod­ern-day Ma­hants who are unashamedly loot­ing the San­gat’s funds and cheat­ing the Sikh San­gat.”

The protest con­cluded with a solemn pledge to con­tinue the strug­gle un­til jus­tice is de­liv­ered, cor­rup­tion is con­tained, ad­min­is­tra­tion is stream­lined and the sanc­tity of Takht Sri Ha­ri­mandir Ji Patna Sa­heb is pro­tected through de­mo­c­ra­tic means.