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Sikh Community protests UC on
Pashaura Singh
WSN Network
 CALIFORNIA:
Perturbed over the refusal of the University administration to
remove Prof. Pashaura Singh as the chairman of the Sikh Foundation
endowed Dr. Jasbir Singh Saini Sikh and Punjabi Study Chair
(Language) at the University, members of the Sikh community will
lodge a street protest at the University on 26 September.
Organised by the Sikhs for Preservation
of Sikhism and Sikh Heritage and the Coalition of Gurdwaras of
California, members from all walks of life will assemble at Gurdwara
Riverside and them go to the University premises.
Giving details
of the protest, community leaders said that “The Sikh community is
appalled at the role of the administrative personnel of the
University
of
California.
The Sikh community's discontentment has been ignored by the
University of California's academic personnel process.
Various Gurdwara
committees and others who would participate in the protest have
called for an independent investigation of the role of the
University and have sought answers to the following allegations:
1. What were the
criteria used by the University of California's academic personnel
process to hire a candidate demoted from Assistant Professor to a
Senior Lecturer at University of Michigan?
2. Did the
University of California's academic personnel process take into
account Prof. Pashaura Singh's usage of the following unauthentic
mannuscripts during research on Guru Granth Sahib Ji?
a. MS#1245 at “Guru
Nanak Dev University”, Amritsar, India
b. Vanjara Pothi
at “Javadi Taksal”,
Ludhiana, India
c. Bahowal Pothi
at “Bhai Bir Singh Sadan”,
New Delhi, India
3. Why did the
University of California at Riverside not respond to the letter of
Mrs. Saini - Major Donor to the Sikh chair and who appealed for
global Search for the Chairperson and recommended not to offer the
chair to Prof. Pashaura Singh?
4. Why did the
University of California at Riverside rescind on its promise to the
Sikh community that they will not hire Prof. Pashaura Singh for the
Sikh Chair in 2005 and wait till 2008 to appoint him to the chair
through the backdoor?
5. Was due
process followed by the
University of
California's academic personnel process in selection of Prof.
Pashaura Singh?
6. Prof.
Pashaura Singh's methodology of fabrication/falsification and
ghostwriting issues in order to promote his Blasphemous Research on
Guru Granth Sahib Ji is well known. What is the University's take on
this?
7. How can a
chairperson can be effective if it is one who avoids truth and
chooses to have limited communication with members of the Sikh
community?
Sikh
organizations have been lobbying for change of guard at the chair
for quiet some time but the University authorities have responded
with palliatives and promises.
17 September 2008
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