Gurmeet Ram

Although I had intentionally avoided writing about the controversy in Punjab, I finally decided to make a post about it. For those of you who haven't heard about what's been going on:

Basically there's been a conflict in Punjab due to the fact that the leader of a dera/sect called Sacha Sauda "appeared in advertisement dressed up as Guru Gobind Singh, the revered 17th century Sikh guru. "

Akal Thakhat has issued edict against the leader, and is currently, (practically) forcing him to apologize. They organized a Punjab Bandh-day, which basically means that all shops, offices, schools and everything are closed, in protest to what happened.

An ultimatum has been issued saying that if he doesn't apologize for this "blasphemous act" by ay 27, they demand the closure of his deras in Punjab.

More background info about the issue

Basically, I think that what he's done isn't very nice, and one can almost guess that his intentions weren't to be very nice either. Although I can understand that a lot of Sikhs are upset about it, I think that this might be taking it too long.

I agree with the fact that peaceful protests have been made to get people's attention that Sikhs are very upset about the issue, and that what he's done was very offensive. To quote from tribuneindia.com from May 24; "Makkar was reported to have told mediapersons that he did not believe in what the law and Constitution says. He had stated that deras of Sacha Sauda would have to be vacated.” Something gives me the feeling that, the approach that will be used to impose this ultimatum isn't going to be very peaceful, especially considering the fact they are openly saying they don't give two hoots about the law. The fact that some "hard-liners" have announced that they will reward the person who manages to 'bring the dera leader's head' will be weighed in gold, does not help.

I think the approach Sikhs used to use before was really good. In 1920's against the British for having taken over the Gurdwaras and imposing their rules and regulations, Sikhs peacefully protested, and were at times SHOT for doing so [Hence: Gurdwara di seva ley kurbaniya kitiya; Those who sacrificed their lives in order to be able to serve and take care of the religious shrines- in the daily ardaas. (read more about that here).] Another event that comes to mind is the massacre of 1978 in Amritsar, where the Sikhs peacefully, (without weapons) protested against the Nirankari baba for the "blasphemous" words he used to address Guru Granth Sahib Ji. They were shot the whole bunch for protesting (read more here). Today Sikhs are getter more into using violence. It become the easy-way-out to show that we are upset. Whereas before Sikhs would take a lot of sh*t before using violence; Sikhs now quickly jump to the resort of using violence. Sikhs are loosing this tolerance, and ‘taking-the-sh*t-first-resort’, which kind of worries me,

I think the article by I.J Singh and Ravinder Singh raise a lot of very important issues regarding this event. I strongly recommend that you read it, especially if you have been following the recent events in Punjab. Click here to read it.