World Sikh News pre­sents its views on the gen­eral elec­tions 2019 and urges the peo­ple of Pun­jab to de­feat the forces of fas­cism and feu­dal­ism -man­i­fested in the form of the Bharatiya Janta Party and the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal. WSN also ques­tions the ‘bal­anc­ing act” neu­tral­ity of the In­dian me­dia, and the Pun­jab me­dia and pre­sents its clear opin­ion on can­di­dates and po­lit­i­cal par­ties.

Whom should the elec­torate in a par­tic­u­lar con­stituency or state vote for? Should the vote be only a caste, re­li­gion or re­gional de­ci­sion?  These are ques­tions that an in­di­vid­ual or as a group have to grap­ple with prior to elec­tion day.  There is more to it too.

Why do the ubiq­ui­tous In­dian me­dia which has made deep in­roads into our homes, our think­ing processes and even dreams, shy away from mak­ing a con­sid­ered choice and let­ting its read­ers or view­ers know about it? Why does the me­dia that man­ages to storm our opin­ion does not care to gives its own opin­ion in a forth­right man­ner? Is the In­dian me­dia neu­tral­ity dur­ing elec­tions a con­ve­nient sham or an op­por­tunis­tic bal­anc­ing act?

The In­dian me­di­a’s bias is for all to see. Yet, it chooses not to make a clear stand and say it in so many words.

In the cur­rent gen­eral elec­tions in In­dia, the World Sikh News has ad­e­quately ex­pressed its opin­ion in gen­eral terms and now on the thresh­old of elec­tions in the state of Pun­jab, it is time to let the vot­ers in Pun­jab know what to do and what not to do.

World Sikh News has con­sis­tently pointed out over the last few weeks that a vic­tory for the rul­ing Bharatiya Janta Party will amount to suc­cess for agents of fas­cism and hate­mon­gers. The World Sikh News opin­ion is cat­e­gor­i­cal -that the Bhar­tiya Janata Party must be de­feated. For us, in Pun­jab, there is no sin­gle party to vote for. WSN will pre­sent the choice of can­di­dates in each of the 13 con­stituen­cies.

The World Sikh News opin­ion is cat­e­gor­i­cal -that the Bhar­tiya Janata Party must be de­feated. For us, in Pun­jab, there is no sin­gle party to vote for. WSN will pre­sent the choice of can­di­dates in each of the 13 con­stituen­cies.

In an un­mis­tak­ably bold ed­i­to­r­ial note in a cur­rent is­sue, the lead­ing me­dia gi­ant, The Econ­o­mist says, call­ing Naren­dra Modi -Agent Or­ange and a threat to democ­racy, says, “Mr Modi has been nei­ther as good for In­dia as his cheer­lead­ers fore­told, nor as bad as his crit­ics, in­clud­ing this news­pa­per, imag­ined. But to­day the risks still out­weigh the re­wards. In­di­ans, who are in the midst of vot­ing in a fresh elec­tion, would be bet­ter off with a dif­fer­ent leader.”

In­dian me­dia and Pun­jab me­dia must learn to take a stand and even ad­mit a mis­take. The Econ­o­mist writ­ing about In­dia also shows that there is no such thing as “what is The Econ­o­mist’s stake in In­dia?” Well, in the global vil­lage that we live, every­body has a stake every­where.

In the face of a huge cam­paign ef­fort by Re­pub­li­can can­di­date Don­ald Trump for the pres­i­dency, the New York Times had the courage and un­der­stand­ing to ap­peal to Amer­i­cans that, “Our en­dorse­ment (of Hillary Clin­ton) is rooted in re­spect for her in­tel­lect, ex­pe­ri­ence and courage.” The Opin­ion piece goes on to dwell at length about her qual­i­ties and weak­nesses cul­mi­nat­ing in the above stand of the news­pa­per.

At the World Sikh News, we do not do the bal­anc­ing act. We are clear that as an in­formed me­dia for the peo­ple of Pun­jab, the Sikhs in the home­land and the Di­as­pora, it is our duty to stay alert and aware and keep our read­ers well-in­formed. WSN un­hesi­tat­ingly but with due con­sid­er­a­tion pre­sents its view on the po­lit­i­cal par­ties and can­di­dates from the state of Pun­jab.

At the World Sikh News, we do not do the bal­anc­ing act. We are clear that as an in­formed me­dia for the peo­ple of Pun­jab, the Sikhs in the home­land and the Di­as­pora, it is our duty to stay alert and aware and keep our read­ers well-in­formed. 

Our bench­marks for our choice are in­ter­ests of the Sikh na­tion, con­cerns and de­sires of the peo­ple of Pun­jab, de­feat of fas­cist forces, build­ing al­ter­na­tives to op­por­tunists within the Sikh com­mu­nity which have led the Sikh com­mu­nity and the state of Pun­jab on a path of de­struc­tion, snub­bing pop­ulism and nepo­tism and crush­ing ris­ing pseudo-saint­hood in and around Pun­jab and de­vel­op­ing so­lu­tions to the agrar­ian cri­sis and a stop­page of the tide of flight of Sikhs and Pun­jabis from their home­land.

 World Sikh News stands up for Paramjit Kaur Khal­ra’s hu­man rights pitch

 ਵਰਲਡ ਸਿੱਖ ਨਿਊਜ਼ ਬੀਬੀ ਪਰਮਜੀਤ ਕੌਰ ਖਾਲੜਾ ਦੇ ਹੱਕ ਵਿੱਚ

 World Sikh News stands up for Sikh rights and Pun­jab in­ter­ests

In the com­ing days, as a run-up to the elec­tions slated for 19 May, World Sikh News will pre­sent its well-thought of views in each of the 13 Pun­jab con­stituen­cies and would urge the elec­torate to take it into con­sid­er­a­tion.

Those who miss, do so at their own risk.