The squeeze is get­ting tighter by the day. NDTV’s cam­paign to eu­lo­gise Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa as a larger-than-life Se­wadar of the Sikh com­mu­nity will not be able to save his im­age of be­ing a cor­rupt pres­i­dent, the likes of which the DS­GMC has not seen be­fore. With the CMM Delhi or­der­ing him not to flee the coun­try as that would amount to ob­struc­tion of jus­tice and the DS­GMC chief singing the op­po­site tune, the onus is now on the Delhi po­lice ex­e­cut­ing the court or­der of 9 July. Sikh cir­cles say that he can save face by re­sign­ing from his post and mem­ber­ship of the party, but even his par­ent party-Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal is silent about this. WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh an­a­lyzes the re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal af­fairs of Delhi.

DUR­ING THE  NEARLY 3-YEAR REIGN OF MAN­JIN­DER SINGH SIRSA, the po­si­tion and sta­tus of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee have been se­verely com­pro­mised. To­day, his pres­i­dency is also in jeop­ardy. His moral right to con­tinue does not ap­peal. The dig­nity and sta­tus of the Sikhs, which he claims to up­hold through Sewa and chivalry, is un­der se­vere strain. In the his­tory of the elec­toral pol­i­tics of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee, he is the first Pres­i­dent to be barred from over­seas travel through a court or­der.

De­spite the court or­der, Sirsa has re­futed the claims. The pres­i­dent of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal in Pun­jab -Sukhbir Singh Badal is silent and no ac­tion has been taken nor has there been an in­di­rect pub­lic ad­mo­ni­tion of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa.

Given the pas­siv­ity of the Delhi Sikh San­gat on re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal is­sues, it is not sur­pris­ing that there has hardly been any re­ac­tion.  This raises an alarm for the times to come and for the fu­ture of Delhi Sikh Pol­i­tics.

As the self-in­vited court in­ter­ven­tion by the DS­GMC reaches its zenith, cases of cor­rup­tion, mis­man­age­ment, malfea­sance, nepo­tism, re­mu­ner­a­tion to school teach­ers eas­ily land up in courts and the DS­GMC plays the le­gal game with San­gat funds. 

Pop­ulist mea­sures, which are a drain on com­mu­nity re­sources re­sult in reck­less ex­pen­di­ture but of­fice bear­ers are shame­less and fear­less of vi­o­la­tion of stan­dard op­er­a­tions pro­ce­dure and ac­count­abil­ity to Sikh San­gat, which has elected them.

In the or­der dated 9 July  2021, Dr Pankaj Sharma, Chief Met­ro­pol­i­tan Mag­is­trate, Pa­tiala House Courts, New Delhi di­rected the IO Eco­nomic Of­fences Wing while hear­ing the case of un­jus­ti­fied pay­ments from Gur­d­wara Go­lak funds to Raja Tent and Dec­o­ra­tors. He or­dered the full re­port of the IO, in­clud­ing the LOC, to be sub­mit­ted at the next hear­ing on 26 July 2021.

In his re­ac­tion, Sirsa has stated that he would chal­lenge the CMM or­der un­der Sec­tion 340 IPC in the Delhi High Court. 

The Delhi Akali Dal led by the Sarna broth­ers has launched a tor­nado against Sirsa. At a press con­fer­ence held to high­light the mis­deeds of Sirsa, party leader Harvin­der Singh Sirsa said, “Sirsa is the first Pres­i­dent of  DS­GMC who has an FIR for fi­nan­cial fraud and is also fac­ing cases of crim­i­nal con­duct. There are cases  un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion and he be­comes the first pres­i­dent who has been di­rected by the court to make sure he does not flee from the coun­try.” 

“Sirsa is the first Pres­i­dent of  DS­GMC who has an FIR for fi­nan­cial fraud and is also fac­ing cases of crim­i­nal con­duct. There are cases  un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion and he be­comes the first pres­i­dent who has been di­rected by the court to make sure he does not flee from the coun­try.” 

Harvin­der Singh Sarna, leader, Delhi Akali Dal

“I won­der why the Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib is not tak­ing any ac­tion against such a leader,” asked Paramjit Singh Sarna. “Even the si­lence of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions of the Gov­ern­ment of Delhi is dis­turb­ing,” he added. 

The Jago party leader Man­jit Singh GK has so far re­frained from mak­ing a state­ment, pos­si­bly be­cause of cor­rup­tion cases pend­ing against him. Party spokesper­son Par­min­der Pal Singh has how­ever com­mented on how Sirsa is mis­in­ter­pret­ing the court or­der.

Sirsa who is more fa­mous for be­ing ob­tru­sive in sit­u­a­tions out­side his do­main has also be­come a syn­onym for by­pass­ing rules and ethics, vi­o­lat­ing so­cial stric­tures and un­Sikh acts -with a clear po­lit­i­cal bias against Sikh in­ter­ests. 

The al­le­ga­tions of fraud and malfea­sance are pos­si­ble be­cause the DS­GMC like all bad Sikh in­sti­tu­tions does not fol­low Stan­dard Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dures and is Pres­i­dent and Gen­eral Sec­re­tary-cen­tric in de­ci­sion mak­ing and funds al­lo­ca­tion and spend­ing. 

The al­le­ga­tions of fraud and malfea­sance are pos­si­ble be­cause the DS­GMC like all bad Sikh in­sti­tu­tions does not fol­low Stan­dard Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dures and is Pres­i­dent and Gen­eral Sec­re­tary-cen­tric in de­ci­sion mak­ing and funds al­lo­ca­tion and spend­ing.

No­body in his san­ity will ob­ject to fi­nan­cial sup­port to Covid19-af­fected fam­i­lies. How­ever, where are the rules on the ba­sis of which such an­nounce­ments of free ed­u­ca­tion in Guru Hark­is­han Pub­lic Schools to chil­dren who lost their fa­ther be­cause of Covid19 for 12 years and free ed­u­ca­tion in DS­GMC run col­leges af­fil­i­ated to Uni­ver­sity of Delhi, Sag­gan schemes, free mar­riage arrange­ment in Gur­d­waras, et al have been promised. 

One key as­pect is whether this is not a vi­o­la­tion of the model code of con­duct and the sec­ond is that DS­GMC has no money to pay salaries to staff and to pro­vide the best med­ical health and in­sur­ance fa­cil­i­ties for re­li­gious and ad­min­is­tra­tive staff but Sirsa un­abashedly splashes San­gat given gold to build a hos­pi­tal.  The model code of con­duct is still in force to date.  The si­lence of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions on the al­leged vi­o­la­tions is omi­nous. 

No­body de­nies the need for a hos­pi­tal, but how much gold was gath­ered, how much given, how much will be spent, how will it be spent, who will be ac­count­able, to whom will it be af­fil­i­ated, will it ben­e­fit the poor Sikhs, how will these ben­e­fits be de­liv­ered? Who will an­swer these ques­tions?

No­body de­nies the need for a hos­pi­tal, but how much gold was gath­ered, how much given, how much will be spent, how will it be spent, who will be ac­count­able, to whom will it be af­fil­i­ated, will it ben­e­fit the poor Sikhs, how will these ben­e­fits be de­liv­ered? Who will an­swer these ques­tions?

How much gold and sil­ver re­ceived from the San­gat does DS­GMC have?  On what ba­sis did the choice of Baba Bachan Singh hap­pen?  On 27 Sep­tem­ber 2016, Man­jit Singh GK had handed over 47 kilo­grams of gold and sil­ver (no breakup given) to Baba Bachan Singh. What hap­pened to that yel­low and white metal? Does the DS­GMC have any record of the use of that?

On 27 Sep­tem­ber 2016, Man­jit Singh GK had handed over 47 kilo­grams of gold and sil­ver (no breakup given) to Baba Bachan Singh. What hap­pened to that yel­low and white metal? Does the DS­GMC have any record of the use of that?

Com­plicit with Sirsa not very long ago, JAGO party chief Man­jit Singh GK has ques­tioned Sir­sa’s ways and ac­tions.  He has pointed out that Sirsa has made many pop­ulist mea­sures and promises in the past -550 chil­dren to be given on­line classes, Ru­pees one crore to Baba Bachan Singh for Bala Sahib hos­pi­tal, evening classes at the Khalsa Col­lege and so on, noth­ing of which saw the light of the day or were aban­doned within days, leav­ing the stu­dents in the lurch. 

To save him­self from any fur­ther ig­nominy, the least Sirsa can do to sal­vage the sit­u­a­tion for him­self and his party is to re­sign from the pres­i­dency and mem­ber­ship of the DS­GMC.