It was thus that the Sikhs became the first and the last people to rule as a nation In this unique experiment power was desired to be vested in the ultimate analysis with the individual Sikh members exercising it via the Sarbat Khalsa and the sovereign power center Akal Takhat. This was the real ganatantar in which the Government of the country remained under effective supervision of the Sikh masses. This is in sharp contrast to the moribund democracy of today in which black money have its own vote banks and readymade M.I.A.s and the so-called popular Government are only proxy outfits and the Elitist-Urbanite master’s rule from behind a protective curtain of anonymity. The Akalis also cashed in on the lack of awareness of this lacuna in the Sikh political life and allowed the Akal Takhat to remain in the background. This lack of guidance from the Akal Takhat has led to the whetting of the Akali appetite for absolute power which they have achieved by following the ‘Biprin Ki Reet’ as already alluded to earlier.
The old adage that paid employees of a master i.e. the Government S.G.P.C or other corporate bodies become psychological casualties after long years of subservience and come to develop a mental paradigm which sub-consciously inhibits all impulses for independent thought and action. Such people were therefore described as Nikhids that is psychologically handicapped. The Sikh tradition has it that in any sangat called for Gurmat a such people were called Tankhaiya and not allowed to take part in the Gurmata. The Akalis fell for the English rulers’ practice of appointing their own Jathedars to the Akal Takhat and commanding them to issue anti-Panthic and anti-Sikh Hukamnamas. Thus the English man had a Hukamnamas calling the Canadian freedom fighters traitors issued from the Akal Takhat. Subsequently Jathedar (Sir) Arur Singh got his title for bestowing a saropa on General Dyer the author of the Jalian Wala Bagh massacre in which out of twelve hundred killed eight hundred Sikhs had died for the independence of India and in June 84 thousands of Sikhs died in the army massacre in the Golden Temple Complex and elsewhere. Thus for lack of guidance from the Akal Takhat thousands of Sikhs youths became deserters from the Indian Army in June 1984 as a result of the traumatic events culminating in sacrilege of the Akal Takhat and the Golden Temple during the Blue Star Operations.
Similarly after the military occupation of the Akal Takhat and the Golden Temple the Sikhs are again groping in the dark because of lack of correct direction/guidance from the Akal Takhat.
Both the Jathedar of Akal Takhat Gyani Kirpal Singh and Head Granthi of Harminder Sahib Gyani Sahib Singh have made statements on Television compromising the honor and the interests of the Sikh Panth. Gyanai Sahib Singh has been dancing attendance on Gyani Zail Singh who had been declared a Tankhaiya for his acts of commission when Gyani Sahib Singh was with him and therefore was in part himself guilty. The Congress I propagandas is have sought to introduce another distortion in the Sikh tradition which the Akalis seem to have swallowed because it suits their party purposes and that is the institution of the hierarchy of the priestly class like in Christianity and Brahminism. The Guru had purposely not prescribed any such priestly order nor their distinctive order or uniform. Guru ordained no intermediaries between the Sikh and the Guru or the Akal Purkh the various Sikhs ceremonies are to be performed by any member of the Khalsa fraternity and all members are treated as equal and therefore bhai bhai. The institution of the so-called high priests is therefore extraneous to the Sikh tradition and therefore repugnant’ Furthermore the Hukamnamas and other settlement of disputes can be done by the Sangat which when sitting in a sarbat khalsa meeting can obtain a Hukamnama from the Akal Takhat which supersedes all other judgments. The Akal Takhat is the only Takhat which has this supreme temporal authority It is not in keeping with the Sikh tradition to create artificial devices like the Sant Samaj a meeting of the dharmic leaders/sants and the Jathedars of various Sikh Takhats and head granthi. All of them must sit in the sangat in a sarbat khalsa as equals and bhai bhai. It is the sarbat khalsa presided over by the Akal Takhat which exercises the supreme powers of the panth (Khalsa Mero Satgur Poora) and its commandments are issued as Hukamnamas from the Akal Takhat. The two that is the Sarbat Khalsa and the Akal Takhat constitute one whole the Khalsa collectively. The recent Hukamnama declaring Gyani Zail Singh Harchand Singh Longowal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra Tankhaiyas by the Takhat at Hazoor Sahib does not amount to a Hukamnama from the Akal Takhat and therefore has been rightly and justly ignored by everybody. Another important point which has been subject of confused thinking is the summoning of the sarbat khalsa meeting. A suggestion has been made that only the jathedars of all the five takhats can jointly call such a meeting. Others have held that the jathedar of Akal Takhat is the only person so authorized. In fact tradition has it that the Khalsa almost always held such meetings at the time of Baisakhi and Diwali at the Akal Takhat. Meetings have been called by the Jathedar of Akal Takhat who always acts with the sangat and as apart and parcel of sangat like the governor in-council and there should be no difficulty in the alternative the sangat approaching the jathedar for a call for a meeting of the sarbat khalsa. Such matters should never be sought to be codified which is what the Nikhids in the bureaucracy always want like the running controversy between India’s Supreme Court and the Lok Sabha. Some people want the relationship between the two that is the Supreme Court and the Lok Sabha to be precisely defined there are others who are against such codification for fear of its being misconstrued and misinterpreted Therefore the matter should be left at that and to the good sense of the Sikh Sangat. Gyani Sahib Singh at one time talked of contempt proceedings in relation to the Akai Takhat and on the line of the statutory contempt of court procedure we think this is not wise. Counter White Paper on the Punjab Agitation.
We have a copy in Gurmukhi script issued from New Delhi on July 10,1984 under the seal of Bharat Sarkar.
Page 1 Paragraph 1 Answer 1 1 It is stated in the first line that there was a continuous agitation during the last 3 years. In reply we have to say that the Sikhs have been agitating for their Just demands and against grave injustices ever since independence. The present Dharam Yudh cannot be viewed in isolation. Sub para 4 It is alleged that smugglers criminals and anti-social elements exploited the agitation
We say that it was a conspiracy hatched by the government for the discomfiture of the Sikh leaders and as an excuse for use of a heavy hand instead of a democratic response to the peaceful Akali agitation.
1 Para 11 It is alleged that the anti-social elements acted under the garb of Dharm Yudh. We again submit that it was the government’s failure to control the antisocial elements that were in fact used by the government secret agencies acting as agent’s provocateurs
II Para No. iii It is alleged that hit-lists were prepared. We submit that the government also accepted such hit lists prepared by the Elitist Urbanite masters and prosecuted the Sikhs on the basis of such lists prepared by some newspapers magazines Further we submit that no such hit lists have been recovered from the record captured by the army from the various buildings in the Golden Temple Complex. Further Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwalla repeatedly denied having any hit-list with him.
b) It is stated that the danger of communal trouble had really become possible.
We submit that the betrayal of Punjabi the mother tongue was the initial and the most important proof of the government and the Elitist Urbanite hand in dividing the Punjab on communal lines to avoid opposition on economic and rural Vs urban basis.
II Para No. iv government has talked of compromise within a just envelope of condition. We reply that the government imposed impossible and unjust conditions almost like the wolf imposed on the lamb could never be fulfilled by the lamb whose fate was thus already sealed. We have mentioned elsewhere in this paper that the government wanted to complicate the matters and contrive a situation for the use of state power against the Sikhs. The ‘Surya’ report on the machinations of the Third agency for creating violence in Chowk Mehta smuggling arms into Amritsar and pulling wires from Delhi to keep the Punjab State government confused and paralyzed and harassed and persecute the Sikh intellectuals and sabotage any political solution of Punjab problem.
II IV In the last line it is stated that the government made another effort for holding talks which the Sikh leaders turned down
We say government thrice sabotaged agreements reached with the Sikh leaders because its intentions were to contrive a situation to justify use of extreme force against the Sikhs.
IV No. V It is stated that the foreign incitement was clear.
We counter and say that government has not brought any charge against any foreign power in its own white paper it keeps her links for false accusation against the Sikhs by way of giving them a bad name before ‘shooting’.
In another line government says that under these circumstances the army had to be called in. We say that the government had all along been determined to crush the Sikhs with a heavy hand and that it was playing for time to contrive the necessary scenario through its secret agencies.
III I government has claimed that army action was meant to flush out extremists and remove their weapons from there and explain the army action this way.
We counter that the governments real intention was an attack on the Sikh religion and hence action was delayed till the highest seat Akal Takhat their most Charismatic Preacher (Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwalla) and the Amritdhari Sikhs all fell in the same gun sight. The talk about the extremists is a propaganda gimmick. Indian army’s official bulletin ‘Baat Cheet’ had let the cat out of the bag. The Amritdhari Sikhs are: denoted by extremists terrorists and anti-national murderer appellation.
Last line
IV Para No.3 It is alleged that the Sikhs demanded an independent state. We say the Anandpur Sahib resolution only demanded being limited to a few departments. The imputation is misconstrued.
IV Para No . IV It stated that an administrative unit be created in which the Sikh religion should be specially protected
We say this is exactly what Pandit Nehru had held out to the Sikhs when he talked of an Area and a set up in the North’. Something even more than this has been conceded to Hong Kong by the Chinese People’s Republic under a newly-added Article 13 in the Constitution which provides for the creation of a special administrative units. China has recently offered even more liberal arrangements to Formosa. There is the experiment of the European Common Parliament which nine sovereign States have joined and a methodology of cooperative living together is being worked out. This is exactly what had been contemplated by the Sikhs in 1947 on the understanding that no Constitution shall be framed by independent India which was not freely acceptable to the Sikhs.
V. No. V. government has alleged that its attitude was not obstructionist both during Secret as well as public meetings. We had already submitted that the government thrice sabotaged agreement arrived at it’s a Part of the government propaganda to plead innocence which is absolutely fallacious.
V.Para No. VI. Government has repeated its false claim to guarding the country’s integrity.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 2, 1991
