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Appeasement Galore
Doordarshan Accords Unprecedented Time Slot To Ravidasia Dera
Mansukh Kaur
 Even as the Sikh
youth arrested in Austria continue to languish behind bars and there
is no movement on listening to their side of the story, the Punjab
Government is going out of the way to appease Dera Sachkhand Ballan
in Jalandhar. Such appeasement comes even as it shuts its eyes off
the undue pressure being brought on shrine managements across the
world to replace Sri Guru Granth Sahib with pictures of Sant
Ramanand.
In a blatant
step aimed at appeasing the Dera Sachkhand Ballan, the Akali Dal-BJP
government has prevailed upon Jalandhar Doordarshan to allocate more
than 30 minutes at prime time to Dera Sachkhand Ballan. The entire
program is worked out at the directions of the Dera management, and
only and only Bhagat Ravidass' bani is sung. No other hymn from Sri
Guru Granth Sahib is allowed on that programme.
Even the kirtan
of Bhagat Ravidass Bani, when performed by Ragi jathas elsewhere, is
shown by superimposing a picture of Bhagat Ravidass. Dera Sachkhand
Ballan's views form a backdrop throughout the programme.
No other sect
gets the kind of time slot that the Doordarshan Jalandhar has given
to Dera Sachkhand Ballan.
The Bhagat,
whose bani is revered by Sikhs all over the world, is throughout
referred to as Satguru in the sort of katha that is performed by a
sect leader. Less said the better about the kind of
mis-representation during the program of the great Bhagat Ravidas'
bani.
All of this
comes after the state government had buckled under the violence and
pressure of the Dera following a killing in
Vienna
of a sect leader. The state government had then rushed an aircraft
to Austria to fetch the body of the slain leader and had declared a
holiday. CM Badal and his Akali Dal president son Sukhbir Singh
Badal had personally attended the funeral and gave clear signals
that appeasement was the route that the government planned to take.
Also, at the
drop of a hat, the Punjab Government has started banning books and
ordering inquiries at any kind of complaint by any splinter section
of the Valmiki samaj. After complaints of a perceived tangential
remark in one of the episodes of a TV serial, CM Prakash Singh Badal
took personal interest in writing to the Centre and has even
dispatched teams of sleuths to Mumbai film industry and has assured
the community of his personal intervention.
But at the same
time, repeated complaints of mis-representation of the Sikhs in
Bollywood movies and on umpteen TV programs have not had any impact
on the Punjab Government. Even as the Sikh intelligentsia has been
crying hoarse that the Censor Board in India must have
representatives from minority communities and needs sensitization
about their concerns, not once has the Akali Dal president Sukhbir
Singh Badal or his CM father added their voice to the protests.
14
October 2009
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