By Kirpal Singh
BUFFALO: On the Birthday celebration of Guru Nanak Dey Ji this year, the Sangat paid tribute in a very different and unique way. The Sangat decided to make the Gurv’s fight against injustice a regular and permanent feature of their Gurdwara Sahib institution.
The Sangat felt that instead of the present set up in the Sikh nation of responding to the incidences of injustice in an erratic and emotional way there has got be a more systematic, and organized way, which is more stable and permanent. Also it felt that this important part of the Guru’s mission should not be forgotten.
The Sangat unanimously decided to mandate the Gurdwara Management Committee to use offerings collected on the celebrations of “Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Ji” and “Birthday of the Khalsa on Baisakhi” to be exclusively used for helping the “Victims of Injustice” around the globe.
Committee of five local representatives selected by the Sangat will be given the responsibility of seeking information about the victims of injustice to be helped, investigating their situation and arranging help team of auditors will be setup. Auditing of the program final we will be biannual. For the auditing reports deadlines every year will be 15th of December and 15th of May respectively. The findings of the auditing committee and Progress report of the program will be mandated to be presented to the Sangat on the occasions of birth day celebration of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Martyrdom day of Guru Arjun Dev Ji.
The controlling authority will always stay with the local representatives, so that the Sangat does not need to go too far to pin point the trouble spots to correct, in case it finds the program not to be running to its satisfaction.
On local committee will be made responsible for distributing a maximum of $25000 annually. In case the dollar amount to be dis tribute exceeds this figure, then another such committee will be set up. In case other Gurdwara Sahibs happen to set up such programs too, then some Zonal and National
Committees may be set up, whose function will be to coordinate communication and sharing of in formation between different local and zonal committees to avoid any duplication of effort. Under no circumstances the Zonal or National Committees will be given any financial control.
The idea is to build the structure from the grass roots up rather than the other way round.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 1, 1989
