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Of Turban in French Knot and Badal at Ram Navmi
Questions of identity are troubling many communities in the world,
the Sikhs are foremost among them. The leading Sikh NGO based in the
United States, the United Sikhs, is in the process of launching a
Right To Turban (RTT) movement; Sikhs are fending off many a hate
crime which they suffer because of mistaken identity; and legal
fights to keep their religious symbols at places of work are
engaging the community in different continents. Amid all this comes
the decision from the apex court of France, ruling that the Sikh
children in schools cannot sport their turban, an inalienable piece
of attire which completes the Sikh identity. A group of Sikhs, just
some eight friends, land up at the Antarctica and plant a Nishan
Sahib there. What's it if not a deep recognition of the question of
identity?
"Nyarapan"
has been the core of the Sikh identity issue, and all these fights
and symbolic actions represent the Sikh community's continuous
efforts to engage with the issue of identity.
And
then suddenly the Sikh diaspora, fighting ever so hard on the
identity front, gets to see latest picture postcards from back home:
a blue-turbaned Akali Dal stalwart and Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal who is never tired of proclaiming himself and his party as the
sole representatives of the panth, his son and acting president of
the party Sukhbir Singh Badal and many other leaders participating
in the Ram Navmi celebrations, performing aarti, saying their
prayers in Jalandhar with saffron robes dangling around their
necks.
Saffron is hanging around Akalis' neck for long now, and never was
its grip so clenching as it is in this government. The BJP-RSS hold
the lifeline of the government, and the saffron 'tikka' is not only
a dot on Badals' foreheads. It is a big blot on the panthic
government.
All
statements by the RSS about Sikhs being a part of the larger Hindu 'samaj'
go unchallenged, Swami Agnivesh is a favoured guest of the SGPC,
Akali government has ministers who took credit for performing 500
paths of Ramayan, a BJP minister Tikshan Sud wants a Ram Act to be
enacted in Punjab to put in jail anyone refusing to utter the Hindu
Lord's name, Murari Bapu is not content till he holds a Ram Katha at
the samadhi of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Baba Ashutosh Noormehlia is
adamant on holding his vodoo-salvation darbars despite strong
protests from the Sikhs and Pyara Singh Bhaniarawala remains
unpunished years after publicly decrying the Guru Granth Sahib and
burning scriptures when Badal ruled last. As for the rulers, one of
the first places to pay obeisance that Badal selected was the Bhaini
Sahib darbar of the Namdhari sect head Baba Ram Singh who considers
himself a Guru. Badal announced revival of “Satguru” Jagjit Singh
Chair in the Guru Nanak Dev University even as demands for a chair
in the name of Shaheed Bhagat Singh is pending for years. As for
setting up a chair in the name of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala,
the mere idea may prompt Akalis to demand some reserved cells at
Guantanamo Bay for such trouble makers.
In
such a situation, how is the ruling Akali Dal helping the cause of
the Sikhs in acquainting the world about their true identity? In
India, the Sikhs are tired of proclaiming that they are not Hindus.
In the US and in many parts of Europe, they are working overtime to
underline that they are not Muslims or Jihadis. But agendas like
that of the Badals’ confuse the entire issue of identity.
28 March 2007
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