Latest of a string of grave anti-Sikh provocations in India
High Court ruling angers 3 million Sikh diaspora
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - Latest in a string of recent provocations targeting the beleaguered Sikh minority in Punjab, (e.g. controversy over displaying a portrait of respected Shaheed Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the Central Sikh Museum, located inside the Darbar Sahib complex; anti-Sikh campaign by senior Indian journalist/agent provocateur Kuldip Nayar about that portrait in the print media by rote; construction of the illegal Hansi-Bhutana Link canal in Haryana to siphon Punjab river water; ignoring very serious ground water contamination in the Punjab which is killing thousands of Punjabis while its river water, which could recharge underground water, is ‘exported’ free of charge to non-riparian Hindu-majority states of Rajasthan and Haryana; and hurtful Sirsa Baba affair which ridiculed Sikh Gurus, et al.) is the unfair and dishonest ruling, on Monday December 17, by a bigoted bench of the Brahmin-dominated Punjab and Haryana High Court which will effect the education prospects of future generations of the Sikh community in the Punjab and has angered the 3 million strong Sikh diaspora all over the world.A divisional bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising two bigoted ‘Hindutva’ judges, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ajay Lamba, has on December 17, 2007, declared the Punjab government notification, of April 2001, as ultra vires of the Indian Constitution which NO Sikh law-maker has ever signed. This notification has over the years allowed numerous Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee-built-funded-administered Sikh educational institutions, to reserve 50% seats for Sikh students, (hailing from the states of Haryana, Himachel Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh and also from the 3 million strong Sikh diaspora) who have lagged way behind the Hindu community in education and have much catching up to do in order to survive in the world of the ‘internet’ in this fast-paced 21st century.
The 2-member Punjab and Haryana High Court Division Bench (Punjab, unlike the states of Himachel Pradesh, Manipur-Imphal, Jharkand, Chhattisgarh, Assam and other small states of India does not have a separate High Court nor does it have a capital city of its own – it has been forced by the Brahmin rulers of India to share both with Haryana state) gave the ruling on the April 2001 Punjab notification, in response to a petition filed by one Sahil Mittal, a Hindu resident of Sangrur district. Sahil Mittal in his petition against the state of Punjab (and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, SGPC and the Managing Committee of Sri Guru Ramdass Institute of Medical Sciences) had earlier sought the quashing of April 2001 notification (issued during the tenure of former Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amrinder Singh) which had declared SGPC-run Sikh education institutions in the states of Haryana, Himachel Pradesh, Punjab and ‘Chandigarh’ as ‘minority’ and permitting these SGPC-financed institutions to reserve 50 per cent seats for the members of the Sikh community on whose donations the Amritsar-based SGPC survives. Directions were also sought from the High Court for quashing other notifications of the state of Punjab dated April 2006, and of June 18, 2007. These notifications allowed certain institutions to divide the NRI (non-resident Sikh diaspora) seats equally between the government quota and the management quota. The petitioner had also asked for quashing the notification dated August 1, 2007, fixing separate fee structure for government quota of management seats.
Allowing the petition, filed by Sahil Mittal, a Barnala-based Hindutva student, who was denied admission to an institute financed by the SGPC, the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, (comprising two Neo-Nazi Hindutva judges, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ajay Lamba) ruled that notifications issued by the Punjab government in April 2001 are declared as ultra vires to the constituion. Pronouncing the orders in an open court, the Bench observed: “There is nothing to show from the written statement by the state of Punjab that it had any material or even a grievance that, as a group, the Sikhs apprehended deprivation of their religious, cultural or educational rights in the state of Punjab from any other community, who may be in majority and who may gain political power in the elections. On this short ground, the impugned notification cannot be sustained in law.”
In their detailed order, the Bench of the Punjab & Haryana High Court (read ‘Hindutva Kangaroo Court’) cited a number of the Supreme Court judgments before observing that, “the country could not have been taken as a single unit, as has been done; and there was no material to substantiate that ‘Sikhs’ were not dominant in the state of Punjab. As a consequence of the notification, additional protection had been conferred on a group of citizens in an unauthorized manner, while excluding other similarly placed citizens. This was clearly in violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution”. The Punjab & Haryana High Court Bench also ruled that all consequential action would not affect the admissions prior to the date of judgment, except for the ones which were subject matter of the pending proceedings. The bigoted Hindu-dominated ‘Kangaroo Court’ Bench further ruled that, “We further direct that the claim of the petitioner be now considered in accordance with the law in the light of this judgment within one month from the date of receipt of the copy of the order.” According to a front page report in yesterday’s Tribune newspaper, the development is significant as (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071218/main2.htm <) these SGPC-financed educational institutes would not be able to reserve up to 50 per cent of the seats for the members of the Sikh community hailing from the Punjab and living in the diaspora abroad.
The Punjab government may move the Supreme Court against the orders of Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Advocate-general Sirdar Hardev Singh Mattewal was quoted in the media as saying since the case involved an important legal issue. As such, he said, they would go into all aspects of the case, and after perusing the judgment, will take a decision on moving the Indian Supreme court. He further added that, “the SGPC had become an inter-state body after the Punjab Re-organization Act-1966 and was serving four states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachel Pradesh in addition to ‘Chandigarh’. Otherwise also, as per the electoral college, the Sikhs were in minority”. The not-too-smart Punjab Advocate-general however, forgot to mention that educations institutions financed and run by the Amritsar-based SGPC also serve the three million strong prosperous Sikh diaspora over-seas where the news of this Punjab & Haryana High Court ruling has caused great resentment and anger all over the world. Perhaps the Badal government needs to seek top legal advice and close ranks with former Punjab Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh during whose tenure the courageous April 2001 notification was issued.
Another report in yesterday’s HINDU newspaper, the Media Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister, Sirdar Harcharan Singh Bains, reacting to the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling, said the state of Punjab would legally contest the court order which ruled that Sikhs were NOT a minority community (> http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/18/stories/2007121854620500.htm <) when seeking admission to Sikh institutions run and financed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) in the Punjab. The Court declared as ultra vires of the Constitution the notification issued by the Punjab Government declaring SGPC-run and financed Sikh institutions as minority institutions. Under that April 2001 notification, the SGPC-run and financed educational institutions, in the four ‘states’ of Punjab, Haryana, Himachel Pradesh and Chandigarh. were permitted to reserve 50 per cent seats for members of the Sikh community.
As if synchronized with the above mentioned December 17 judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court the double-faced, silky tongue agent provocateur Hindutva journalist, Kuldip Nayar, has again in his column published in the Asian Age newspaper, on 17 December, 2007, aired his typical mischief. (> http://www.asianage.com/presentation/columnisthome/kuldip-nayar-.aspx <) Instead of minding his own business, Kuldip Nayar has objected to the caption under the Sant Bhindranwale portrait in the Central Sikh Museum inside the Darbar Sahib complex which, truly expresses the unanimous admiration of the Sikh nation for Shaheed Sant Bhindranwale, when it correctly reads: "The great Sikh General of the 20th century, and the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs attained martyrdom on Wednesday, the 6th June, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honor and prestige of Sri Harminder Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib." Kuldip Nayar, a true Hindutva fascist at heart, considers the wording as “unfortunate because the Indian armed forces represent India. The government and India are two separate entities.” Are they?
It seems the respectful caption under the portrait of the greatest Sikh of the 20th century, Shaheed Sant Bhindranwale, in the Sikh History Museum, has stuck in agent provocateur Kuldip Nayar’s craw as two weeks earlier in his column published, on 7 December, 2007, in Pakistan’s leading English newspaper, DAWN, Kuldip Nayar wrote (> http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/07/op.htm <) that, “However, more debatable than the portrait is the text written below it: “The great Sikh General of the 20th century and the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs, attained martyrdom on Wednesday, June 6th, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honour and prestige of Sri Harminder Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib. The wordings are unfortunate because the Indian armed forces represent India. The government and India are two separate entities”. What nonsense! It seems Mr. Kuldip Nayar is airing his hidden phantoms about the muscular Sikhs by rote. He seems to have forgotten the gratis ‘education’ he received in the United States over eleven years ago, on Sunday, 14 July, 1996, in the presence of the Illinois Palatine Gurdwara Sahib sangat when, as is his wont, he aired his dezinformatsiya with a silky tongue and got ambushed. The following link to the 1996 debate held in the U.S. Gurdwara, should remind him to lay off and also educate him that mischief against (> /media/audio/speeches/dramarjit/kuldipnayar.mp3 <) Sikhs is counter productive as it can easily boomerang any time any where.
A grim picture of Indian Occupied Punjab and the Sikh minority surfaces in an article, dated 24 December, 2007, written by Chander Suta Dogra, in the latest issue of India’s prestigious Delhi-based OUTLOOK magazine headlined, “PUNJAB HEALTH – Poison Earth - Courtesy an overzealous Green Revolution, Punjab has poison in its water and a cancer epidemic on its hands – The curse is spreading ...” is a MUST READ for every Punjabi specially those of the diapora. It should be an eye opener for those who have friends and relatives living in Indian Occupied Punjab (which has been held captive behind a double barbed wire ‘Berlin Wall’ since 1947). To read the spine-chilling article please click at the following link: > http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071224&fname=Cancer+%28F%29&sid=1 <
According to the above mentioned OUTLOOK article the Chandigarh-based Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research has conducted a two-years long study in five villages along Punjab's major rivulets in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar districts and found that 88 per cent (yes 88%) ground water samples showed alarming levels of mercury with over 50 per cent samples of ground and tap water was contaminated by arsenic. Vegetables like Lady's fingers, carrots, gourds, cauliflower and chillies were found to have toxic levels of lead, cadmium, and mercury which affect the nervous system. Pesticides beyond permissible limit was found in vegetables, fodder, human and bovine milk, as well as in blood samples. Blood samples of 65% of the villagers showed DNA mutation; which has resulted in a sharp increase in cancer, neurological disorders, liver and kidney diseases, congenital defects and miscarriages. This health crisis in Indian Occupied Punjab has been caused by the overuse of pesticides and the dumping of industrial effluents, which have made both soil and water toxic in the absence of natural recharge by the waters of the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers which life-giving commodity is being siphoned ‘off the top’ (with central government connivance) to quench the unending thirst of the parched non-riparian Hindu-majority states of Rajasthan and Haryana who have no right whatsoever to Punjab’s river water under the Indian constitution. Punjab be damned is the attitude in these ungrateful states and the center!
A week ago the BBC also carried a Delhi datelined report by Sunil Raman, which revealed that a study commissioned by the Punjab Water Pollution Control Board found 80% of ground water samples from the Punjab had mercury that was far beyond the permissible level. Arsenic was found in 70% of samples of effluent, 50% of tap water samples and 57.7% of ground water samples. A high degree of pesticides had contaminated water in drains in parts of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr. The study says that blood samples collected from people in the area showed that in 65% of the cases the DNA had mutated because of high levels of ground water contamination causing a high prevalence of congenital deformities, cancer and kidney damage. (> http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7119780.stm <)
The sudden, and provocative, decision by the two Neo-Nazi Hindutva judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court to interfere with the six years old admission policies of the SGPC-financed and administered educational institutions, in Indian Occupied Punjab, should alert every Sikh to the conspiracies brewing in the neighborhood. A report in the Tribune, on 25 November, 2007, by Sarbjit Dhaliwal (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071125/punjab1.htm#3 <) headlined, “Hansi Bhutana canal – Haryana using all means to get approval,” gives an indication of the direction the conspiracy might take. Dhaliwal wrote that, “As ground is slipping from under the feet of Haryana on the Hansi-Butana canal project issue, it is trying hard to use its political influence at the Union Government level to get the canal project cleared from the Central Water Commission (CWC) by hook or by crook.”
Instead of ‘viewing various arguments being advanced by the Haryana Government to justify the construction of the illrgal Hansi-Bhutana canal for which neither any prior clearance was taken from the Central Water Commission nor the project discussed with Punjab and Haryana, both partner in the Bhakra mainline canal. The canal from which water is to flow in the controversial illegal Hansi-Bhutana link canal,’ the Badal government should be thinking of the ‘SYL solution’ while making determined efforts to muster all the Punjabi leadership, under one standard, to take a united stand in the streets, with morchas and strikes, in case the Indian Supreme Court too pulls a ‘rabbit from the hat’ like the Punjab & Haryana High Court has done.