Over­com­ing le­gal and Covid19 pan­demic hur­dles, all decks are now cleared for the eighth elec­tion to the gen­eral house of the DS­GMC, wherein 345,000 reg­is­tered Sikh vot­ers will ex­er­cise their fran­chise for 46 con­stituen­cies across Delhi. Held every four years, can­di­dates of six groups and a siz­able num­ber of in­de­pen­dents are in the fray in a con­test that has been dom­i­nated more by ex­ter­nal is­sues than the pri­or­i­ties of Sikh cit­i­zens of Delhi. To­day’s elec­tion is an op­por­tu­nity for Del­hi’s Sikh cit­i­zens to de­ter­mine that the best can­di­dates win and im­pact the work­ing of DS­GMC. WSN Delhi Desk’s Gurmeet Singh re­ports.

With the so­cial me­dia savvy Sikh youth tak­ing a keen in­ter­est in the DS­GMC polls, if this is trans­lated into a healthy turnout at the polls, there is likely a qual­i­ta­tive dif­fer­ence in the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Sikh elec­torate in Delhi. 182 can­di­dates of six groups and 128 in­de­pen­dents are con­test­ing the DS­GMC elec­tions, with an al­most equal num­ber of male and fe­male vot­ers. Of the to­tal reg­is­tered vot­ers, there are 173,000 males and 172,000 fe­males.

Reg­is­tered Sikh vot­ers can log on to the web­site of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions for de­tails. The com­pre­hen­sive ward-wise voter list is also avail­able on the Voter List page of the Gur­d­wara Elec­tions web­site. 

Those wish­ing to know the can­di­dates in each con­stituency may log on to the List of Can­di­dates page of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions.  The list of polling booths per re­spec­tive con­stituency can be ac­cessed here.

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa-led Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi State (Badal) has fielded can­di­dates in all 46 wards while the coali­tion of Paramjit Singh Sarna-led Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi has can­di­dates in 34 wards and Jathedar Bhai Ran­jit Singh-led Pan­thak Akali Lehar in 8 wards. Man­jit Singh GK-led Jago party has fielded can­di­dates in 41 wards while Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala-led Sikh Sadb­havna Dal has can­di­dates in 27 con­stituen­cies and Pan­thak Sewa Dal in 27.

The hot seat -Pun­jabi Bagh has the max­i­mum num­ber of 12 con­tes­tants with in­cum­bent pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa fac­ing a chal­lenge from Harvin­der Singh Sarna.

The hot seat -Pun­jabi Bagh has the max­i­mum num­ber of 12 con­tes­tants with in­cum­bent pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa fac­ing a chal­lenge from Harvin­der Singh Sarna.  In the Kalkaji con­stituency, sit­ting gen­eral sec­re­tary Harmeet Singh Kalka faces a tough sce­nario with only 3 can­di­dates in the fray.  Vivek Vi­har has 11 can­di­dates. 

Sub­se­quent to re­sults on 25 Au­gust, the 150 crores-bud­get body will co-opt 4 mem­bers from reg­is­tered Singh Sab­has and the Jathedars of the 5 Takhts will be ex-of­fi­cio mem­bers of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee, un­der the pro­vi­sions of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Act, 1971 and the poll process will be com­pleted on 31 Au­gust 2021.

DS­GMC man­ages 8 His­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras, 14 Guru Harkr­is­han Pub­lic Schools, 5 Khalsa Aided Schools, 1 Hos­pi­tal, 2 ITI Poly­tech­niques, 1 Old Age Home and 8 Pil­grim Inns.

DS­GMC man­ages 8 His­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras, 14 Guru Harkr­is­han Pub­lic Schools, 5 Khalsa Aided Schools, 1 Hos­pi­tal, 2 ITI Poly­tech­niques, 1 Old Age Home and 8 Pil­grim Inns.

The turnout of the elec­tions be­yond cadres will de­ter­mine the out­come of the elec­tions to be held in 554 polling booths, with an av­er­age of 11 polling booths per con­stituency, while Jang­pura has only 8 polling booths and Tri Na­gar has 15 booths. 

While the charm has de­creased in the last two decades, the onus is on the Sikh vot­ers. The lead­ers of the Badal Dal pri­mar­ily fo­cussed on is­sues not re­lated to Sikhs of Delhi, ex­cept the open­ing of the Bala Sahib Hos­pi­tal.  Oth­ers gave pri­macy to Bara­gari sac­ri­lege is­sue, Kash­mir, Sik­li­gars of Mad­hya Pradesh, farm­ers rights, her­itage is­sue in Am­rit­sar and other Pun­jab is­sues.  

Across par­ties, lit­tle at­ten­tion was fo­cussed on grass­roots work in the Na­tional Cap­i­tal Ter­ri­tory of Delhi for Pun­jabi Lan­guage, Sikh Dharam Prachar, up­lift­ment of eco­nom­i­cally weaker sec­tions of Sikhs and the non-vo­cal  Covid19-af­fected medium in­come group Sikh fam­i­lies and the com­mu­nity needs for ba­sic and higher ed­u­ca­tion. 

Paramjit Singh Sarna-led Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi fo­cussed on the cor­rup­tion deals of the Badal Dal and brought these be­fore the Sikh San­gat, filed lit­i­ga­tion in courts and has also run a cam­paign to fo­cus on these is­sues on so­cial me­dia. Af­ter high­light­ing the case of her­itage de­struc­tion in Delhi, Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala led a cam­paign against cor­rup­tion.  Sim­i­larly, Bhai Ran­jit Singh made fer­vent ap­peals to the Sikh San­gat to rise to the oc­ca­sion and re­turn re­spon­si­ble Sewa-ori­ented can­di­dates.

Through­out the elec­tion­eer­ing, there was not much to show of any AAP-en­gi­neered in­ter­fer­ence in the DS­GMC elec­tions. How­ever, af­ter be­ing pulled up by the Delhi High Court, the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions of the Gov­ern­ment of Delhi is­sued a strict no­tice to the Badal Dal re­strain­ing them from vi­o­la­tion of the Model Code of con­duct, in­clud­ing stop­ping the in­au­gu­ra­tion of the Bala Sahib Hos­pi­tal.

theThe DS­GMC is a 150 crores-bud­get body.

The Di­rec­torate has also is­sued an ad­vi­sory for vot­ers at polling booths and it is their hope that the Sikh cit­i­zens will fol­low them, in view of the Covid19 sit­u­a­tion. 

Across par­ties, lit­tle at­ten­tion was fo­cussed on grass­roots work in the Na­tional Cap­i­tal Ter­ri­tory of Delhi for Pun­jabi Lan­guage, Sikh Dharam Prachar, up­lift­ment of eco­nom­i­cally weaker sec­tions of Sikhs and the non-vo­cal  Covid19-af­fected medium in­come group Sikh fam­i­lies and the com­mu­nity needs for ba­sic and higher ed­u­ca­tion. 

The Di­rec­torate has also is­sued an ad­vi­sory for vot­ers at polling booths and it is their hope that the Sikh cit­i­zens will fol­low them, in view of the Covid19 sit­u­a­tion. 

WSN learns that at­tempts by well-mean­ing Sikhs to bring can­di­dates of all groups on a sin­gle pub­lic plat­form for de­bate did not re­ceive an af­fir­ma­tive re­sponse, ei­ther from the can­di­dates or their par­ties.

There were no se­ri­ous dis­cus­sions on process-based work in DS­GMC.

There were no se­ri­ous dis­cus­sions on process-based work in DS­GMC, all par­ties com­ing to­gether on core is­sues sidelin­ing their in­di­vid­ual ide­olo­gies, qual­i­ta­tive im­prove­ment of ex­ist­ing in­sti­tu­tions and most im­por­tantly re­duc­ing the le­gal ex­penses of the DS­GMC which is en­gulfed in a large num­ber of cases in the court. 

In the heart of In­di­a’s cap­i­tal Delhi, Sikh cit­i­zens have the op­por­tu­nity to show­case their ded­i­ca­tion, de­vo­tion and man­age­ment skills to the world, as there is grow­ing in­ter­est in the deeds and mis­deeds of Sikh bod­ies. Which way the DS­GMC goes will be known soon from the re­sponse of the Sikh San­gat.