-You are not my rep­re­sen­ta­tive

JASWINDER SINGH


As feared by WSN, DS­GMC Sec­re­tary Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa crosses the Sikh line and makes stu­pid com­ments sup­port­ing UP Chief Min­is­ter Adityanath on Taj Ma­hal not be­ing part of In­dian cul­ture. The au­thor sup­ports the Sikh voice that Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa is not our rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa -gen­eral sec­re­tary of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee and re­cently elected MLA of the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party, to the Delhi As­sem­bly in a re­cent in­ter­view, backed the state­ment of Yogi Adityanath, Chief Min­is­ter of Ut­tar Pradesh, claim­ing that the his­toric mon­u­ment -Taj Ma­hal is not part of In­dian cul­ture. Yogi Adityanath -an as­cetic turned politi­cian, deeply en­trenched in Hindu be­lief and prac­tice, in one of his speeches in Darb­hanga, said that Taj Ma­hal is not part of In­dian cul­ture. He went on to say that when­ever a for­eign diplo­mat would come to In­dia, a me­mento of Taj Ma­hal would be pre­sented, how­ever since Mod­i’s rule, Hindu re­li­gious books -the sa­cred Bha­gavad Gita or the Ra­mayana are pre­sented to vis­it­ing dig­ni­taries.

It must be un­der­stood that this com­ment on the au­then­tic­ity of Taj Ma­hal and the twist about it be­ing against In­dian cul­ture is not on the ba­sis of it as a cul­tural mon­u­ment but ac­tu­ally flows out of ha­tred to­wards the mi­nor­ity Mus­lim com­mu­nity. Un­for­tu­nately, this com­ing from the mouth of a Yogi, who is sup­posed to be nearer to God and who should see the equal­ity of mankind, makes this even more de­testable. The Taj Ma­hal is a mon­u­ment of love, an em­per­or’s love for his wife. As far as the hus­band’s cru­elty and pol­i­tics are con­cerned, let the his­to­ri­ans judge him.

On an ear­lier oc­ca­sion, Yogi Adityanath claimed that Taj Ma­hal was a Shiva Tem­ple and its name is Tajo Mehlo. Ei­ther the Yogi is con­fused or he has no idea what he is talk­ing about. If he con­sid­ers Taj Ma­hal as the tem­ple of Shiva, then why does­n’t he con­sider it as part of In­dian cul­ture?

While Yogi Adityanath is wel­come to pur­sue his poli­cies, how­ever ra­bid and con­tro­ver­sial they are, it is a to­tally un­called for and an un­nec­es­sary in­tru­sion by Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa. He has no busi­ness to drag his name -a Sikh name (even if it is only in name) to a crass di­vi­sive com­ment, un­sub­stan­ti­ated by his­tory or cul­ture.

A new con­vert to the rad­i­cal BJP mantra on po­lit­i­cal man­age­ment, DS­GMC gen­eral sec­re­tary and re­cently elected Mem­ber of the Delhi As­sem­bly, Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa went over­board to sup­port Yogi Adityanath. He sup­ported the con­tention of Chief Min­is­ter of Ut­tar Pradesh -In­di­a’s largest state with a size­able Mus­lim pop­u­la­tion and re­it­er­ated that Taj Ma­hal is not im­por­tant for In­di­ans.

While Yogi Adityanath is wel­come to pur­sue his poli­cies, how­ever ra­bid and con­tro­ver­sial they are, it is a to­tally un­called for and an un­nec­es­sary in­tru­sion by Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa. He has no busi­ness to drag his name -a Sikh name (even if it is only in name) to a crass di­vi­sive com­ment,  un­sub­stan­ti­ated by his­tory or cul­ture.

The World Sikh News had al­ready men­tioned the dis­turb­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties that will emerge when Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa  (Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa wins, hope Sikhs don’t lose) and oth­ers play a du­bi­ous dou­ble role -un­be­com­ing re­li­gious rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Sikhs in Delhi and new con­verts to BJP. Our ap­peal (Amend Delhi Sikh Gur­d­waras Act, bar two posts for DS­GMC mem­bers) to the Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC (the gov­ern­ing body Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee) and to the Delhi gov­ern­ment to amend the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Act and Rules to ac­com­mo­date the one-man-one-post prin­ci­ple, has so far not elicited any re­sults.

By the way, what do Yogi Adityanath and Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa have to say about the Red Fort -con­structed by the Mughals and from whose ram­parts In­dian Prime Min­is­ters hoist the In­dian na­tional flag year af­ter year? What about In­dia Gate built by the British and adopted by the In­di­ans? And the Pres­i­den­t’s House?

The World Sikh News had al­ready men­tioned the dis­turb­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties that will emerge when Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa and oth­ers play a du­bi­ous dou­ble role -un­be­com­ing re­li­gious rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Sikhs in Delhi and new con­verts to BJP. Our ap­peals to the Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC (the gov­ern­ing body Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee), of which Sirsa is a mem­ber and gen­eral sec­re­tary and to the Delhi gov­ern­ment to amend the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Act and Rules to ac­com­mo­date the one-man one-post prin­ci­ple has so far not elicited any re­sults.

Also, what do Yogi Adityanathand Manin­der Singh Sirsa think about the Sati prac­tice -the burn­ing of a Hindu widow on the pyre of her de­ceased hus­band? Will they jus­tify and glo­rify this prac­tice in this day and age be­cause it was part of In­dian (read Hindu) cul­ture?

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa state­ment is a “holier than thou” ut­ter­ance, un­wit­tingly drag­ging the Sikhs into an ab­solutely un­nec­es­sary con­tro­versy. While he thinks that he may reap po­lit­i­cal ben­e­fits out of such syco­phancy, he is un­der­min­ing the ba­sic Sikh ethos of equal­ity and re­spect for all re­li­gions. Tar­nish­ing Sikh prin­ci­ples un­wit­tingly or know­ingly is of­fen­sive to Sikhs and the Sikh San­gat should hold him re­spon­si­ble for his ut­ter­ances.

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa and his ilk have yet to tell us what ef­forts they are mak­ing for the wel­fare of Sikhs in Delhi. We need to know whether his feud with DS­GMC Pres­i­dent Man­jit Singh GK has been re­solved or is he still wait­ing in the wings to be­come the Pres­i­dent and then re­sort to whole­sale dam­age to the name and rep­u­ta­tion of the Sikhs. I am wait­ing for Sikhs in Delhi to rise to the sit­u­a­tion, till that hap­pens, I pro­claim, loud and clear, “Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa -you are not my rep­re­sen­ta­tive -so­cially, re­li­giously or po­lit­i­cally.”

Manjinder Singh Sirsa -You are not my representative