Shocked and outraged at the Indian President Shri Ram Nath Kovind presiding over a function in Santiago, Chile where a lady danseuse performs the Kathak dance with Gurbani being played in the background, WSN editor Jagmohan Singh writes a scathing, bold, hard-hitting and un-pardoning Open letter to the President of India.

President Ram Nath Kovind:  It’s never easy to discard tradition and courtesy, and yet with a heavy heart I cannot begin this letter with a greeting. You and your office, esteemed as it is perceived to be, have lost respect in the eyes of Sikhs since the function of 31 March 2019 held in your honour in Santiago, Chile.

When the first citizen of India shows disregard for the founder of the Sikh faith –Guru Nanak, it becomes difficult to show respect.

Dance is anathema to Gurbani –the Word of the Gurus, should have been known to you or in the least protocol should have forewarned you.  Guru Amardas -the Third World Teacher, on page 506 of Guru Granth Sahib says,

ਨਾਚੁ ਰੇ ਮਨ ਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਆਗੈ ॥
ਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਭਾਣੈ ਨਾਚਹਿ ਤਾ ਸੁਖੁ ਪਾਵਹਿ ਅੰਤੇ ਜਮ ਭਉ ਭਾਗੈ ॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥

So dance, O mind, before your Guru.
If you dance according to the Guru’s Will, you shall obtain peace, and in the end, the fear of death shall leave you. ||Pause|

My hands tremble as I described your participation, my fingers find it difficult to hit the keyboard. Your name has words that a large number of people of a centuries-old faith use to describe their gods, and yet you thought it is alright that you talk about Guru Nanak’s 550 years and also preside over a function where the prime teaching of the same Guru Nanak Sahib, enshrined as the Mool Mantar –the Key Primordial Note in Guru Granth Sahib, are reduced to a dance accompaniment? This disgraceful desecration and blasphemy is unacceptable and intolerable.

While you allude to 550 years of Guru Nanak in your speech, you mention Guru Nanak in the same breath as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. You have every right to praise Gandhi, but you do not have the privilege to equivocate him with the founder of the Sikh religion.

While speaking to the Indian community,  you are reported to have said, “As the world around is increasingly falling prey to negative forces of terrorism, violence and greed, universal messages of peace and tolerance by Guru Nanak Dev and Mahatma Gandhi are increasingly relevant….”

While you allude to 550 years of Guru Nanak in your speech, you mention Guru Nanak in the same breath as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. You have every right to praise Gandhi, but you do not have the privilege to equivocate him with the founder of the Sikh religion. That should ideally apply in all cases. As Head of the State, you should not have equated even a god or goddess of Hindus with anyone from the world of politics, even if that person is admired by many people. You were ignorant of the simple historical fact (and your advisors failed to educate you) that Gandhi spoke against the Gurus and did not particularly like the Sikhs, and the dislike is reciprocal.

The dance act in Santiago supersedes all blatant acts done by anti-Sikh forces including the RSS and its offshoots. The Indian ambassador to Chile Ms. Anita Nayar and the group of Non-resident Indians in Chile under the flagship of Indian Community and Friends of India are equally culpable of the crime of blasphemy.

Your officers have since removed the blasphemous post from your Facebook account However that is not enough.  Reacting to Sikh ire, your press secretary Ashok Malik has tweeted, “….it has since been pointed out that elements of the cultural programme, in producing which the President’s Secretariat had no role, have hurt sentiments of some of our people. Responsive to the faith and traditions of all sections of India, the videos have been deleted.” Does this contain an apology? No. Does this say that Sikhs were offended? No. Has the President’s office instituted an internal enquiry to find out who produced the programme? Highly unlikely!

Are Sikhs dumb? So is their behaviour. Are Sikhs naive? That is what many in India think.  Are Sikhs dead? No.

The President’s Secretariat may not have produced the programme but did the Protocol officer not brief the President about the event where he was to be the chief guest? Is that not standard procedure as per the Blue book? No explanation has been offered so far. Will it be given? Highly unlikely! This is what pains us.

Even though you were nurtured in the matrix of a political party which has scant regard for Sikhs and Sikhism, as President you should have fared differently.  Even though Sikhs are now prepared to expect the worst, they wished that the President of a country would be wiser than the rest.

If the SGPC and DSGMC have even an iota of self-respect, under strong protest, they should not touch a single paisa that the government of India may attempt to give for the celebrations to mark the 550th year of Guru Nanak Sahib.

This should be the last time that such an incident has happened.  To the best of my knowledge, never ever had things plunged so south. Still, to be sure, I have started research into the past.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee offered feeble denunciations of the Santiago incident and as for them, after the Facebook removal, their job is done. If they have even an iota of self-respect, under strong protest, they should not touch a single paisa that the government of India may attempt to give for the celebrations to mark the 550th year of Guru Nanak Sahib.

Are Sikhs dumb? So is their behaviour. Are Sikhs naive? That is what many in India think.  Are Sikhs dead? No. The hundreds of protests show that all is not yet fully lost.  However if this happens again, Sikhs will have themselves to blame.  In one voice they should obtain an unqualified apology from you.  The Sikhs do not have within their powers to impeach you. The least we want is an apology and a reprimand all those at the Indian embassy, including the Indian Ambassador in Chile and in your Secretariat, who are accountable for this sacrilegious excursion.

As I cogitate over your outrageous demeanour, I cannot help but recall an incident in Sikh history.  In the early eighteenth century, after the widespread persecution of the Sikhs, Zakariya Khan spread this notion that the entire population of the Sikhs had been finished -lock, stock and barrel. “No Sikh remains. All Sikhs have been killed.”

I see you as Bhabhi Khanno and this epistle is in the spirit of Bota Singh and Garja Singh.

Learning this, two Sikhs –Bota Singh Garja Singh, blocked the road at Sarai Nuruddin, Tarn Taran and started collecting tax from travellers and transporters. They proclaimed, “Chitti likhat likhe Singh Bota, Hath hai sotta, vich raah khalota, aana laaya gaddhe nu te paisa laya khota, aakhi bhabi khanno nu yuh kahe Singh Bota.” —-Go and tell Bhabhi Khanno –the ruler of India, that Sikhs are alive; they uphold their sovereignty and are collecting tax on the Grand Trunk Road.

The Mughals sent an army battalion of a 100 horsemen and both died fighting. The Mughals killed them, but soon realised that Sikhs are not exterminated and that they were still alive and kicking.

I see you as Bhabhi Khanno and this epistle is in the spirit of Bota Singh and Garja Singh.

Jagmohan Singh
Editor, The World Sikh News