Opinion- Hate Cam­paign of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa Against Kashmiri Muslims Must be Stopped

Jagmohan Singh

JIHAD is a sa­cred word for Mus­lims and I re­spect it. Mor­cha is a sa­cred word for the Sikhs and I re­spect it. Yud­dha is a sa­cred word for the Hin­dus and I re­spect that too. How­ever, the so­bri­quet of ‘Love Ji­had’ is a po­lit­i­cal term, coined in a deroga­tory man­ner against in­di­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties pro­fess­ing Is­lam and I de­test it.

Let us face re­al­ity. Whether it is Sikhs, Mus­lims or Hin­dus -all com­mu­ni­ties, per se, do not like, en­dorse or sup­port in­ter-faith mar­riages. All com­mu­ni­ties go into a tizzy in case a lady mem­ber of their com­mu­nity mar­ries or at­tempts to marry out of faith. The re­ac­tion of fam­i­lies and re­li­gious groups ranges from ac­cept­ing the will of the lady, re­gret­table res­ig­na­tion to fate, coun­selling to the two in­di­vid­u­als to dis­solve their mar­riage or a con­fla­gra­tion of ab­duc­tion, fal­si­fi­ca­tion of facts, et al, as in the pre­sent cases in Jammu and Kash­mir.

Every­body knows that given the in­ter­ac­tions be­tween in­di­vid­u­als of com­mu­ni­ties in the global vil­lage that we live in, it is well-nigh im­pos­si­ble to stop such mar­riages, notwith­stand­ing the doc­trine of var­i­ous faiths or its in­ter­pre­ta­tion by re­li­gious lead­ers. Law is also a fac­tor favour­ing in­di­vid­ual de­ci­sions in the mat­ter.

Of course, it is up to the fam­i­lies to nur­ture their chil­dren ei­ther to re­main in­tro­verts or be ex­tro­verts as far as the in­ter­faith mar­riage of their male and fe­male child is con­cerned.

Some pro­tag­o­nists of re­li­gions ad­vo­cate pros­e­ly­ti­za­tion as a way of in­creas­ing num­bers and Sikhs see them­selves at the re­ceiv­ing end be­cause their re­li­gious preach­ers and mis­sion­ar­ies re­frain from such en­deav­ours. His­tory also stands tes­ti­mony to this.

The ex­cur­sion of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa from New Delhi to Jammu and Kash­mir will cost the Sikh com­mu­nity dearly if it does not con­demn their ac­tiv­i­ties in one voice. This is not to say that Man­jit Singh GK did any bet­ter as he too toed the BJP line. Paramjit Singh Sarna too got car­ried away with emo­tions, though he could have adopted a sen­si­tive ap­proach.

The ex­cur­sion of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa from New Delhi to Jammu and Kash­mir will cost the Sikh com­mu­nity dearly if it does not con­demn their ac­tiv­i­ties in one voice. This is not to say that Man­jit Singh GK and Paramjit Singh Sarna have played out any bet­ter.

Frankly, the Sikhs of Delhi and Pun­jab must take out a Mor­cha out­side the of­fice of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa for mak­ing sin­is­ter ef­forts to mar the hard-earned re­spect of Sikhs and Kash­miri Mus­lims for each other over the last few decades, clearly at the be­hest of his BJP mas­ters.

It has taken a lot of ef­fort, love, re­spect and de­mo­c­ra­tic be­hav­iour and in­ter­ac­tion to put be­hind us, the an­i­mos­ity of the Mughal pe­riod, the angst of the 1947 par­ti­tion of Pun­jab may­hem and mur­der on streets by both sides.

The el­ders in the Sikh com­mu­nity of Jammu and Kash­mir -of var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions and the en­light­ened sec­tions of the Sikh youth have not taken lightly what has hap­pened and have re­it­er­ated the bond­ing be­tween the ma­jor­ity Kash­miri Mus­lim and mi­nor­ity Sikh com­mu­ni­ties.

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa is the new Mas­ter Rachh­pal Singh of the Sikh com­mu­nity.

Us­ing the wide­spread Sewa of the Sikh com­mu­nity across Delhi and world­wide as the ful­crum, to­tally ig­nor­ing his du­ties as the Pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC and side-track­ing burn­ing is­sues of the Sikhs in Delhi, Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa is the new Mas­ter Rachh­pal Singh of the Sikh com­mu­nity. No­body asked him to do Sewa for which he takes so much credit and is now at­tempt­ing to get re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal mileage.

For those new to the lex­i­con, Mas­ter Rachh­pal Singh in Delhi was the toady of the Union gov­ern­ment in every­thing that the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal in par­tic­u­lar and the Sikhs, in gen­eral, would do for com­mu­nity in­ter­ests. In less than a week, we have found a Mas­ter Rachh­pal Singh in Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa. Sadly and very un­for­tu­nately, the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal and even the Akal Takht Sahib have not opened their mouth against this. On the con­trary, they have be­come part­ners in the crime of mis­in­for­ma­tion.

Sadly and very un­for­tu­nately, the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal and even the Akal Takht Sahib have be­come part­ners in the crime of mis­in­for­ma­tion.

From the stand­point of Sikh ethics and civil be­hav­iour, the role of the po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship and that of some way­ward so­cial me­dia war­riors in Jammu and Sri­na­gar speak­ing the anti-Is­lam lan­guage is highly re­gret­table and con­demnable.

Sir­sa’s ‘vic­tory march’ from Sri­na­gar to New Delhi, end­ing with obei­sance at Gur­d­wara Bangla Sahib with a Kash­miri Sikh lady and her new-found hus­band has no re­li­gious or so­cial sanc­tion and the Sikh com­mu­nity, even though be­numbed and silent at the quick turn of events, do not en­dorse it in any man­ner.

Sir­sa’s ‘vic­tory march’ from Sri­na­gar to New Delhi, end­ing with obei­sance at Gur­d­wara Bangla Sahib with a Kash­miri Sikh lady and her new-found hus­band has no re­li­gious or so­cial sanc­tion and the Sikh com­mu­nity, even though be­numbed and silent at the quick turn of events, do not en­dorse it in any man­ner.

Fear psy­chosis is writ large on the face of the lady mar­ried twice in a few weeks and whisked away to Delhi is a tamasha or­ches­trated in a po­lit­i­cal and ex­tra­ju­di­cial man­ner.

Man­jin­der Singh Sir­sa’s bel­liger­ence must be de­feated by all means. It is time for a whole­some out­reach by the Sikhs and Kash­miri Mus­lims, notwith­stand­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties of de­ten­tion by the Jammu and Kash­mir ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa is play­ing BJP’s dirty game of di­vid­ing the two com­mu­ni­ties in Jammu and Kash­mir. With their back to the wall for hav­ing fooled the Kash­miri lead­er­ship through their visit to Delhi, the BJP has used their stooge Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa ex­tremely well to fo­ment “trou­ble in Kash­mir.” It is ex­tremely dis­turb­ing that Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa should take up is­sues with­out talk­ing to any of the Sikh and Kash­miri lead­ers in Kash­mir. He has al­ready done a lot of dam­age to the Sikh im­age and now with his pro-BJP talk, stands fully ex­posed.

Egged on by Sirsa, the Jammu Sikh youth has ut­tered in­sen­si­tive di­a­tribes and they would do good to them­selves and the com­mu­nity by re­gret­ting the same at the ear­li­est op­por­tu­nity. In any case, let the Kash­miri Mus­lims know that no Sikh, worth his salt, will say a word against ei­ther Is­lam or Hin­duism or any re­li­gion for that man­ner, but will strongly op­pose re­li­gious ag­gres­sion from Sikh, Mus­lim or Hin­dutva quar­ters.

Let the Kash­miri Mus­lims know that no Sikh, worth his salt, will say a word against ei­ther Is­lam or Hin­duism or any re­li­gion for that man­ner.

The well-doc­u­mented, or­gan­ised and proven case of groom­ing of Sikh girls in the United King­dom is a case in point. Yet, there too, the per­pe­tra­tors are seen as in­di­vid­u­als ac­cused of do­ing so with­out taint­ing com­mu­ni­ties to which they be­long.

Let it also go down to the en­tire Mus­lim com­mu­nity or any other ben­e­fi­ciary of the Sewa of the Sikhs that the Sikhs’ Sewa is not for any pe­cu­niary in­ter­ests or re­turns. If some­one ac­knowl­edges, it is soul-sat­is­fy­ing; if it is ig­nored, we will still con­tinue to do it.

Those of us speak­ing in re­tal­ia­tory terms are un­aware of the tra­di­tion of Bhai Ghanaiya Ji. Our Sewa is for Sar­bat da Bhala -the wel­fare of all hu­mankind. Pe­riod. We do not ex­pect any­thing in re­turn. No in­di­vid­ual Sikh or Sikh Sewa or­gan­i­sa­tion did any­thing dur­ing the Covid19 pan­demic or any other time of self­less ser­vice to earn some­thing. So­ci­ol­o­gist Di­pankar Gupta in his re­cent ar­ti­cle has ac­knowl­edged this by say­ing that it is rou­tin­i­sa­tion of the Sewa whereby it comes so eas­ily to a Sikh.

Sewa mein Kisi par Koi Ehsaan nahi hai -No favor to any­one.

A Sikh speak­ing with a haughty at­ti­tude to­wards his self­less ser­vice is in ac­tu­al­ity not do­ing self­less ser­vice and is de­fam­ing Sikhs and Sikhism. Sewa Mein Kisi par Koi Ehsaan nahi hai -No favor to any­one.

We are his­tor­i­cally and tra­di­tion­ally bound to play our role of pro­tect­ing the ho­n­our of women, the weak, the down­trod­den and the un­der­dogs, notwith­stand­ing their faith, caste, and po­lit­i­cal lean­ing and we will con­tinue to do so.

Jagmohan Singh is the editor of The World Sikh News. The story initially appeared there.