Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, September 11: More than 650 Sikh delegates sat clothed in saffron at the much-hyped sixth National Convention of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangath, the RSS wing in Sikhdom, in Delhi. Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma and half of his cabinet colleagues were in attendance, inaugurating the convention.
The delegates from all parts of the country congregated for the three-day convention to receive messages of Hindu-Sikh brotherhood. Many more bus loads of delegates are on their way to take part in the convention. US-based scholar of Vedanta and Indian philosophy Swami Arvindananda was also present at the convention.
With the decade of terrorism and bloodshed behind, the participating Sikh delegations from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and other parts of the country seemed all too eager to endorse the platform that promised them a place in mainstream Indian life.
The Sangath, propped by the RSS and run by the trained cadre of the mother organisation, visibly consolidated its position by providing that the conceived platform which gave space to Sikhs not just from Punjab, but also from all over the country.
Introducing the Sikh Sangath’s ideology and agenda national president Chiranjeev Singh said: “Terrorism was not the cause, but the result of the seeds of separatism sown by the British to divide the Sikh community from the Hindus. Our aim is to reestablish the true meaning of the Gurbani and remind Sikhs and non-Sikhs of the sacrifices made by our 10 Gurus for the country and their dharma”.
Taken in by the concept of the great Indian tradition and the allure of a common platform, the delegates were all too keen to talk of Sikhism as a splinter of the overarching Hindu religion but one that has been purged of the evils of casteism and Brahmanical domination by Guru Nanak.
Sikh delegates from other parts of the country, especially those from Uttar Pradesh and the yet-to-be recognised Uttaranchal, aired their problems and political equations were discussed with equal emphasis as that of the Punjab delegates. The Sangath’s president from Uttar Pradesh, for instance, kept discussing Udham Singh Nagar. “The BJP is not being fair to the Sikhs in the Tehri region and other parts of Uttar Pradesh, because we only represent five per cent of the population. That is why Udham Singh Nagar should be a part of Uttaranchal. It will give us 27 per cent vote and whoever comes to power will have to take us seriously”.
However, on the Punjab-end, the Sangath has taken up a RSS-like strategy of catch-’em-young and convert them. “We are holding training camps for students of Classes VII to X. We will not contest any elections, not even the SGPC elections. We want to get as many people as possible in the organisation. And then we can wait for our young people to grow up and take over the reins,” said Mandanjit Singh, Punjab state organising secretary.
However, members of the Sangath’s national executive were more careful. “We believe in their ideology, but we are not part and parcel of the RSS. We are trying to neutralise their aggressiveness,” said Kamaljt Singh, whose father was one of the founder members of the Sangath.
