Sangh Parivar has unleashed its intensified broader design to make inroads into Sikh institutions

 

Sangh Parivar making moves to hegemonise Sikh institutions as part of deeper design

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

The move by Delhi based Akali Dal leader turned BJP man Manjinder Singh Sirsa to withdraw his resignation from presidency of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee citing some technicalities seems to be rooted in deeper design to penetrate the Sikh institutions as part of political agenda of the Sangh Parivar.

Sirsa, the Delhi leader considered close to Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for the last several years, had stunned the party by joining the BJP last month. His resignation from DSGMC presidency was sequel to that development. It is pertinent to mention here that he had lost in the general election to the Delhi committee and was nominated from the quota of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

His association with the BJP otherwise is an old story. He was elected to Delhi Assembly on BJP ticket in bye-polls in April 2017 but all along, he was part of the Shiromani Akali Dal. He also held the office of the DSGMC while being the BJP MLA. That was part of the strategic arrangement arrived at between the alliance partners Akali Dal and the BJP. That an Akali leader having won on BJP ticket and also holding office in second most important elected body of the Sikhs was unprecedented.

His present defection is rooted in that very arrangement.

Sirsa is being seen as the main Sikh leader whose services the Sangh Parivar is likely to utilise as part of its broad political agenda. The earlier defection of senior Akali Dal leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was perhaps also part of that design. Several other senior Akali leaders too had been sounded when Dhindsa parted from the parent party.

However, it is Sirsa who fits in that design as he had become part of the Sangh Parivar narrative as the BJP MLA.

He staged an action along with his associates from DSGMC on December 1, 2019  that was part of the Sangh Parivar narrative. Demanding removal of name of Emperor Aurangzeb from signages on roads, they blackened the signboards for Aurangzeb Lane in the heart of New Delhi. He was quoted as saying, “We oppose Aurangzeb's name on the streets and books, he was a murderer. Seeing his name on streets hurts our sentiments,”.

One has to go back in recent times to have insight into the Sangh Parivar design.

The Sangh Parivar unleashed this design during tercentenary of the Khalsa in 1999 and brought out literature on Sikh history with its own interpretation while describing Sikhism as militant wing of Hindu religion. This design was exposed with the publication of a story in The Indian Express dated February 20,2000. The hard-line  Sikh organisations staged a protest in Chandigarh against 3-day conclave of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat on April 29, 2000.

Earlier, the Institute of Sikh Studies in Chandigarh on April 7, 2000 adopted a resolution that stated, “The recent agenda of the RSS in the name of propagating the ideas and ideals of Guru Gobind Singh through their shakhas especially in the Punjab countryside is a subtle attempt to assimilate the Sikhs into Hindu fold.”

Then came the directive (Hukamnama) from Akal Takht on July 13, 2004 calling upon the Sikhs to boycott the RSS. That was during 400^th anniversary of Parkash of Guru Granth Sahib. The Akal Takht Jathedar at that time was Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti. The activities of the RSS and the Rashtriya Sikhs was perceived to be part of deep and clever design to sabotage the Sikh thought from within. That directive was never withdrawn.

The latest in this series is from incumbent Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh on October 15, 2019 demanding ban on RSS while terming it as divisive organisation.

The Sikh agenda of the RSS is part of this divisive design.

The RSS desperately needs the support of the Sikhs as a minority to create the narrative that it is not anti-minority. The politics of the Sangh Parivar is based upon creating anti-Muslim perception to reinforce the concept of the Hindu Rashtra. The dimension of the Sikhs coming into confrontation with the Mughal rulers is consistently emphasised but the Sikh narrative and theology are not based upon hate but human brotherhood. There have been historically positive dimensions of the Sikh-Muslim relationship also.

It is in this context that the Sangh Parivar has been trying to make inroads into Sikh institutions and Sirsa is an proficient instrument to further that agenda. He had at one time also started the move to get Martyrdom Day of the two youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh -Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fath Singh who were bricked alive by Sirhind ruler- as the Children’s Day in place of November 14 that is birthday of Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru. It was part of Sangh Parivar design to rewrite history and erase name of Nehru.

Both the SGPC and the DSGMC are statutory elected bodies of the Sikhs and any party has the right to contest general election of these bodies.

However, the Sikhs got control of their institutions through long struggles and sacrifices under the Akali banner. These bodies control the religio-political narrative. It is the Akalis who have always controlled these bodies despite efforts by other parties including the Congress and the Communists.

However, the BJP design is different as it is part of its Hindu Rashtra narrative based upon the divisive agenda.

The issue is hegemonisation of these Sikh institutions, directly or indirectly.

What is happening in Delhi is the latest example of such renewed and intensified efforts.