Jagtar Singh

Of Saffron Turbans , BJP and the Sikhs Jagtar Singh Chandigarh:  The Maharashtra government released ads in newspapers earlier regarding function to commemorate 350 th martyrdom anniversary of the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, in Navi Mumbai. Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred in Delhi on the orders of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The Guru   opted for this supreme sacrifice for human rights and religious freedom. There should be nothing unusual about a state government inserting such ad in the newspapers. However, it was unusual at one level. The leaders whose pictures the ad carried included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and others.   What was striking about this ad was that all these leaders donned turbans with saffron being the dominant colour. The Ninth Sikh Guru sacrificed his life for the cause of humanity and human rights. It may be mention...

  Strategic polarisation by BJP has potential to dislocate social secularism in Punjab Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Dera Sachkhand Ballan in the Doaba heartland—an area where Dalit social and religious formations wield considerable influence—has once again revived the debate on the role of deras in Punjab’s complex religio-political landscape. Punjab, a border state that has historically witnessed alternating cycles of violent and remarkably peaceful mobilisations over more than a century, continues to remain politically sensitive and socially layered. This is typical Punjab whose political discourse has invariably been dictated by the Sikh religio-political discourse, at least till recently. This dominant Panthic religio-political discourse has now got fragmented over the period, thereby yielding space to new permutations and combinations in the state’s religio-political matrix. It can safely be said that Punjab is in a flux. The ...

  Ideological Damage to Akal Takht most important dimension of Akali Crisis Ground Zero By Jagtar Singh The Sikh religio-political discourse entered a new phase on Baisakhi 2025 — the historic day on which Guru Gobind Singh, in 1699, created the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib, completing the ideological foundation laid by Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith. Significant developments emerged from the well-attended Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) conference held at Takht Sri Damdama Sahib on April 13. It was the first major public appearance of Sukhbir Singh Badal since his re-election as party president on April 12, marking his return to the helm after a brief interregnum. Sukhbir, who first succeeded his father, Parkash Singh Badal, as party president in 2008, resumes leadership of a party long dominated by the Badal family—an influence that has spanned over three decades, the longest in the SAD’s history. For months, the religio-political landscape of Punjab has remained i...

  Akal Takht intervenes to reset Sikh religio-political discourse Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, Dec 8: The Sikh religio-political domain has the tendency to dictate religio-political discourse of Punjab whose polity is different from other regions in the country. This is the state where a national dynamic minority is in majority. This minority was the third entity in all the political negotiations leading to India’s independence. What happened in Punjab on December 2 has to be reviewed in this backdrop as this development is going to have far-reaching impact not only on the future of the Shiromani Akali Dal but also the political tendencies at several levels. It is pertinent to mention at this stage itself that the Sikh religio-political discourse is presently affecting even India’s geo-politics, especially in the American sub-continent in the context of the activities of a section of the Sikh Diaspora. December 2 was unprecedented in the history of more than a c...

  Sukhbir Badal’s resignation from presidency could be first step in Akali Dal’s revival Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, November 16: It is late by seven years. Had Sukhbir Singh Badal resigned in 2017 from the presidency of the Shiromani Akali Dal, the second oldest political party in the country, correctives might have been applied at the time when the party’s route had been triggered. This party that had all along dictated political discourse of this Sikh dominated state was pushed down to the third position in 2017 Assembly elections replaced by the rookie Aam Aadmi Party as the main opposition. This fall was to continue unabated with the party strength having been reduced to just three MLAs in 2022 Assembly elections and 10 of its 13 candidates lost their security deposits in the last Lok Sabha elections. Today’s resignation is culmination of developments sparked with the complaint submitted by a section of the rebel Akalis to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir...

  Akali Dal chief has only one while Akal Takht chief 3 choices in turbulent Sikh matrix Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, November 14: The present turbulence in the Sikh religio-political matrix is unprecedented. At the centre of this turbulence is mainly the role of Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal over a decade but at a broader level, that itself is not the issue. The basic issue is that of the future of the 104-year old Shiromani Akali Dal that had evolved as the global voice of the Sikhs. That voice has now gone mute. Should the fifth largest religious denomination be voiceless at the political level? The situation has also to be viewed in the context of the global Sikh concerns as the Diaspora Sikh narrative has come to impact India’s geo-politics under the Narendra Modi government whose self-proclaimed muscular nationalism has come under suspicion. (Ghus Kar Marenge) The Shiromani Akali Dal has been virtually indifferent to this geo-political narrativ...