A community event that is to be attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on October 25 here in Delhi has become the bone of contention
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is caught in yet another controversy and this time it is related to Sikh community. A community event that is to be attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on October 25 here in Delhi has become the bone of contention
While the Sikh arm of the RSS, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, is all set to commemorate the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh at a huge event in Delhi's Talkatora Stadium and which is billed to be attended by over 5,000 Sikhs, including several religious figures of authority, the RSS alleged that a section within the Akalis as well as separatists elements pulling strings from foreign countries were trying to scuttle the programme.
"A section of the Akali leadership is apprehensive of the RSS sway inside the community which may make their politics redundant. Those sitting outside and instigating the Sikhs of the country are separatist and militant elements who want to negate any possibility of harmony with the Hindus," said a senior functionary of the Sikh Sangat.
When asked by DNA to clarify Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) stand on the event, Shiromani Akali Dal MLA in Delhi and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa parried the question. "We have nothing to do with it (the event). We are a religious organisation and we are doing religious work," Sirsa said evasively.
While a coordination committee comprising several US-based Gurdwara management committees and Sikh diaspora bodies has appealed the community in India to boycott the event, an unfazed RSS came out with stinging response. The RSS gave a rebuttal to allegations that the event was anti-Sikh as the Sangat had been censured by the Akal Takth in 2004. The RSS also clarified its stand vis-a-vis allegations that the organisation was trying to bulldoze Sikh identity and aiming at assimilating the community with Hinduism.
Punjab RSS head Brajbhushan Singh Bedi said RSS had always maintained the unique and distinct identity of Sikhism as a separate religion. "Just as Jainism and Buddhism, Sikhism too is a religion with social and religious sanction. RSS has always considered Sikhism as a separate religion. RSS had made its clear in 2001 when the then media head of RSS Madhav Govind Vaidya had conveyed to the then head of the minority commission Trilochan Singh in a written document that RSS considered Sikhism as a separate Indian religion."
The president of Sangat Gurcharan Singh Gill told DNA that the propaganda that Akal Takht had censured the Sangat in 2004 was wrong. "We had prepared to take out a massive all-India rally of Sikhs which we later withdrew.
The Takht had sent out a 'sandeshnama' against it. Since we did not go forth with the rally, the 'sandeshnama' stood annulled. Therefore it is false propaganda that we had been censured."
Gill also told DNA that the event was going to be attended by senior retired army officers, luminaries from judiciary, Jatthedar of Patna Sahib as well as representatives from sects such as Namdhari.
Big names to attend
- The president of Sangat Gurcharan Singh Gill said the event was going to be attended by senior retired army officers, luminaries from judiciary, Jatthedar of Patna Sahib.
- The Akal Takhat the management of the Takhat Patna Sahib should stop Gaini Iqbal Singh, priest Patna Sahib from siding with ‘Panth dokhis’
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "GURU_NANAK")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}