How many copies of the
Draft bill have been circulated amongst Sikhs living all over the
country? After Justice Harbans Singh, has anybody even endeavoured
to seek their opinion? While we cannot absolve the government of
India for its malafide attitude, but is it not true that the real
culprit is the present leadership of SGPC which wants to ride
roughshod of all democratic norms and procedures?
Respected
Sikh leaders:
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
Around thirty years ago, two frail, skinny but well-dressed leaders
with pleasing personalities checked into the large nondescript
guest house of the Khalsa College in Mumbai. The two had come from
Punjab and my mentor who was the professor of history in the
college; Prof. Dalip Singh called me to meet them. The two gentleman
leaders were former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court,
Justice Harbans Singh and a former All India Sikh Students
Federation president, Sardar Bhan Singh. It was a memorable time I
spent with them and at that meeting I first learnt the need and
importance of the All India Gurdwara Act.I had barely started
taking interest in Sikh affairs and the manner in which Justice
Harbans Singh was seeking opinion on various aspects of the All
India Gurdwara Act from us and many others was a lesson for all
activists.
Living in Mumbai, it was one of my first forays
into the Sikh world and I learnt the importance of meticulousness
during my interaction with these eminent Sikh personalities. Armed
with a lengthy questionnaire, Justice Harbans Singh sought replies
on a number of contentious issues and concerns. His devout wife was
also always there to interject a point or two during the course of
the discussions. He and his wife travelled the entire length and
breath of the country where Sikhs reside and documented re plies
from Sikh leaders of respective regions and the opinion of important
Gurdwara management committees regarding the fundamental need for
the All India Gurdwara Act. Today I see many of you writing about
the All India Gurdwara Act in a rather cursory manner. This pains
me. Most leaders, writers, columnists and legal luminaries are more
concerned about making a point in the media, rubbishing the proposed
law, alleging motives, rather than debating the need and
significance of the Act.
I wonder how many of you have read the provisions
of the Act. I am keen to know how many of you are aware of the
trials and tribulations that Justice Harbans Singh and his team
underwent over a period of thirty long years. From 1996 till his
death in 2004, while working on amendments to the Sikh Gurdwara Act,
1925, the diplomatic manner in which Justice Harbans Singh
resurrected the All India Gurdwara Act proposals, without prompting
from any quarter whatsoever was a treat to watch. How many of the
present leaders are aware of the role of the Akali leadership to
trivialize the All India Gurdwara Act proposals from time to time?
Like established governments -the SGPC and Akali leadership, while
upholding the proposal of establishing an All India Gurdwara Act on
paper, made all efforts and used subterfuge and misplaced logic to
perpetuate their own fiefdom. Today, only one thing is certain and
that is that the Badal government is again not handling the issue
with the seriousness it deserves.
All centenary celebrations in the last decade
have been handled in a kid-glove manner. Similar treatment is being
meted out to this serious issue and it is quiet unlikely that the
300 years of Guruship of Guru Granth Sahib will be celebrated with
the dignity and decorum it deserves. What is the opinion of Sikhs
beyond the frontiers of Punjab? In the present times, no one has
attempted to elicit their viewpoint, as was done by Justice Harbans
Singh. In fact, the Punjab leadership perceives the participation of
non-Punjabi Sikhs as a threat to Akali domination of Sikh Gurdwara
affairs.
For many Sikh leaders and commentators in Punjab,
the viewpoint of the Sikhs living elsewhere does not seem to matter.
Representative Sikh leaders of Sikhs living all over India
need to crystallize their thoughts and force the established SGPC
leadership to involve them in the decision-making process not only
regarding the All India Gurdwara Act but on every substantive issue
that affects the personal and social life of the Sikhs. Sikhs living
in the Diaspora need to evolve a mechanism for full participation in
SGPC affairs. How this can be done is the moot point. Anyone
suggesting that the All India Gurdwara Act is petty in nature merely
because it deals with the Sikhs residing in India betrays the
significance of the proposals of the Act. I vividly recall that in
the late nineties of the last century, when this bill was being
drawn, a large cross section of Sikh thinkers, law experts and
leaders had chosen silence as the best way out, perhaps waiting for
an opportunity to resort to rhetoric and more rhetoric.
The ageing Justice Harbans Singh was visibly
upset over no responses from the SGPC and the learned members of the
community and certainly not at the criticism of his proposals. Law
making is a long, tedious and path-breaking process. It is more so
for the Sikhs as it is a 543- member Indian parliament, comprising
of no more than 10-15 Sikh members at any given point of time, who
have to decide upon the proposed legislation. Despite all
difficulties and hurdles, if someone has managed to present the
legislation and there seems to be a remote possibility that it will
become law, then it is the dire need of the hour that we resolve all
the concerns and contradictions in the draft bill and not debunk it
without rhyme or reason. Those who think that it will amount to
gross interference in Sikh affairs need to know that this can happen
only if the Sikh leaders allow it. Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty.
Had the Sikh leaders in the past not chosen to
collude with the Indian government to postpone elections to the SGPC
general house, it would not have been possible for elections to be
postponed for 17 years from 1979 to 1996. The elections to the
Gurdwara Committees under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 were held in
1996 after a gap of 32 years! Sikh leaders were colluding with the
state to perpetuate their hold and Sikh thinkers and masses were
totally blissfully unaware of the developments. Who is to blame?
After a gap of 17 years when elections were to be held to the
General house of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, in
1996, Simranjit Singh Mann wrote to the then Prime Minister of the
country, Mr. Narsimha Rao, expressing among other things, the need
to stop the Sehajdhari Sikhs from having voting rights during
elections to SGPC. It is to the credit of Justice Harbans Singh that
for the first time in the history of SGPC functioning, he created
two forms for voters –Kesadhari Sikhs and Sehajdhari Sikhs.
Though the Sikh leadership was unable to convince
the Ministry of Home Affairs to debar Sehajdhari Sikhs from having
voting rights in that election, subsequently in the next election,
better sense prevailed. This rendered infructuous my petition on the
subject filed with SGPC member Baldev Singh Sehajra in the Punjab
and Haryana High Court. Had Justice Harbans Singh not segregated the
voter forms, it would not have been possible to present the case
before the government that there were a little less than 1 million
non-Sikhs who wanted to cast their franchise in the SGPC elections!
As I mentioned earlier, meticulousness and eye for detail came very
easily to Justice Harbans Singh because of his judicial background
and being a practising and disciplined Sikh. I look for such traits
in everyone who is seriously concerned about the All India Gurdwara
Act and wants to comment on its provisions. The Sikhs in Punjab have
a Sikh Gurdwara Act. Not many of you maybe aware that apart from the
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Act, there exist legal provisions for
management of Gurdwaras in Jammu and Kashmir, Nanded and Patna
Sahib. None of these Acts are foolproof and all of them contain
discrepancies, contractions and enabling provisions for state
intervention. Similarly, how many of our leaders are aware that
there are various Acts to govern Hindu shrines in various states of
India?
Codification of any religious practice should be
welcomed but it should be borne in mind that some amount of state
intervention may accompany such a law. So long as the provisions
give legitimacy and do not enable the state agencies to interfere
with the functioning and management of religious shrines, it should
be acceptable. In the formulation of any new set of rules and
regulations and conventions, the danger of creating a new class of
religious bureaucrats and a priestly class of theocrats is inherent.
What checks and balances should be built into such religious law is
to my mind, one of the biggest challenges for Sikh religious leaders
and lawmakers. To those who exaggerate the scope for state
intervention, bear in mind that the even after the formation of a
Sikh state at some time in the future, the unique place of Akal
Takht will always be paramount and no law even then will be able to
restrict or manipulate the authority and dignity of this
institution. India has a plethora of laws to deal with all kinds of
problems.What it does not have is the political will to implement
these laws. In such a scenario, will another law be of any help?
It
is easy to ask for a Sikh personal law. It is a Herculean task to
resolve the prime question of equal rights to men and women, equal
property rights, preparing divorce laws where none exist in the Sikh
religion. All Sikh leaders and activists of all hues and shades
across the spectrum need to urge the SGPC to convene a series of
meetings to deliberate the draft All India Gurdwara Act bill.
Even before the provisions are debated point by point, we need to
evolve some basic postulates and seek answers to fundamental
questions:Do the Sikhs need an All India Gurdwara Act? Do the Sikhs
living in various parts of India need the Act? How many copies of
the Draft bill have been circulated amongst Sikhs living all over
the country? After Justice Harbans Singh, has anybody even
endeavoured to seek their opinion? While we cannot absolve the
government of India for its malafide attitude, but is it not true
that the real culprit is the present leadership of SGPC which wants
to ride roughshod of all democratic norms and procedures? Are we
ready for a lame duck Gurdwara Act in the same manner that we
accepted an incomplete and inconsistent Nanakshahi calendar?
I have strong and stable opinion on these issues
and a say on the provisions of the draft bill. I have consciously
avoided presenting them in this letter. I will wait to see if my
present note can spur some rethinking and discussion on the issue.
Justice Harbans Singh was a hardcore democrat and he exhausted all
means available to him to solicit the opinion and response of the
SGPC to his draft proposal before sending a copy of the same to the
Ministry of Home Affairs. The disgusting manner in which the then
SGPC president, Jagir Kaur treated him and ignored the Gurdwara
Election Commission should be a study in itself.
The shabby manner, in which he was replaced as
the Chief Commissioner Gurdwara Elections, is another classic
example of how the Akali Dal party treats Sikh scholars as soon as
it is felt that “he was not falling in line”. Not that he ever did
so. In 2004, Justice Harbans Singh died unsung at the ripe age of 90
years and hardly any Sikh leader of repute paid tributes to him,
which is a sad reminder of how as a nation we do not recognize the
work and talent of such stalwarts.I have no hesitation in saying
that the soul of Justice Harbans Singh will be happier to see the
All India Gurdwara bill become law, irrespective of changes that the
present Sikh leadership may deem fit. Guru Rakha.
Sincerely
Jagmohan Singh
(Jagmohan Singh is a social,
religious, health and political
activist. He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com )
Read Also