Tribune editor enflaming tempers of Sikhs by addressing them as radicals etc. Trouble waters would mean chaos and anarchy. Of this there is none. Simranjit Singh Mann.
The Tribune dated 18th February 2023.
Comments by Simranjit Singh Mann: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) states that the editor of The Tribune Mr. Rajesh Ramachandran has been regularly inciting the Hindu Indian state against the Sikh peoples. For many days he has been dishing out reports that the Sikhs are radicals. In this article he has come out openly to attack Sikhs and mar their reputation here and abroad.
The newspaper he edits is owned by trustees who come from a schismatic Hindutva religious order known as Brhamcharies. Since 1947 when the Hindu Indian state came into being this schismatic faith has become a rightwing Hindu sect, which picks on the minorities, Schedule Castes and Tribal’s.
For many days Mr. Ramachandran has been highlighting the protest of the Sikhs at Mohali which is being conducted peacefully. No body is “fishing in troubled waters” as Mr. Ramachandran writes.
The Sikhs are a very mature nationality and the Sikhs do not allow others to interfere in their protests and troubles. The Sikhs at Mohali finding that their grievances are not being addressed began marching towards Chandigarh to publicise their hurt that Sikh political prisoners are not being released though they have spent 32 years in jails.
On 09th February 2023 as a Member of Parliament I spoke in pain on the issue of Sikh political prisoners and other pains the Sikhs are enduring in the Hindu Indian state. My speech is as follows:
SARDAR SIMRANJIT SINGH MANN (SANGRUR) Speech in Parliament dated 09th February 2023:
Thank you, Madam Chairperson.
As minorities, we are not consulted in the making and drafting of the Budget. So, I cannot speak professionally about it because we are never consulted. The other thing is that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is the mini-Parliament of the Sikhs. Elections to that have not been held for the last twelve years, and it is the responsibility of the Union Home Minister to hold these elections.
Madam Chairperson, then the next question is with regard to Sikh political prisoners who have been languishing in jails for the last thirty-two years and they have not been freed though Bilkis Bano’s rapists and her relatives’ murderers were set free on 15th of August, which is the Independence Day.
The other thing is that two Sikh leaders Deep Singh Sidhu and Sidhu Moosewala, and two Russian dissidents in Odisha, have been killed under mysterious circumstances and we want a top investigation on these murders. Many cases of sacrilege of the Sikh religion have been committed since 2015 and the culprits have not been arrested.
The MSP of agriculture, allocation of funds to MANREGA and fertilizer subsidy – we want all these things on priority. In the Defence sector, the flying craft – the squadrons of the Air Force – have depleted to a very considerable extent. And the Jaguar Aircraft, the Mirage aircraft and the MiG series are going to be phased out. So, we cannot fight a two-front war. Then, four-year tenure for a soldier is insufficient. The regimes which have come into being post 1947 have no experience in military matters and we are afraid that the Defence is getting very weak.
Madam, then, there are no Sikh Judges in the Supreme Court or Chief Justices in the High Courts. In the Union Territories and in the Parliament, we see no Sikh officer or Sikh personnel working which is very sad.
In foreign affairs, the Indian Government has not criticized the Russian occupations in Ukraine in 2014. Russia occupied Crimea. Now, if India does not criticize these occupations in Ukraine, then, it would mean that India has accepted the Chinese aggression in Ladakh and NEFA.
These are some of the points and 60,000 Sikh farmers were divested of their legitimate farm lands in Gujarat in 2013. We wish the Prime Minister does something to rehabilitate them.
There is one good word for the Prime Minister. He is doing very well for the poor people but his partymen are putting on too much weight on their tummies. I wonder whether they are working for the poor or fattening themselves on the money the Prime Minister is giving to the poor. वे बहुत मोटे हो रहे ह?
I do not think that any one with a rational mind would find any word or sentence objectionable. But here in this article written by Mr. Ramachandran he refers to me as a “secessionist”.
As a fact Mr. Ramachandran is replaying the role of erstwhile editor of The Tribune Prem Bhatia who coaxed Indira Gandhi to have the British, Soviet and her own troops march into the holiest Sikh Shrine The Darbar Sahib (Golden temple) in an ingress code named Operation Bluestar of 1984. Later that year Indira Gandhi’s son and Premier Rajiv Gandhi went whole hog to commit the crimes in edition to his mothers of genocide, memoricide, vandalism and ethnocide of the Sikh peoples.
We think that there is no reason for the Hindu Indian state to stop Sikhs from airing their grievances and a deep hurt in a peaceful sit in and then march peacefully to Chandigarh, where they would get greater publicity. If the police forces of the Punjab and Chandigarh had not used force to stop the march, we do not think the heavens would have fallen. It would have benefited the state in learning of the deep feelings of the Sikhs on this issue and called out a meeting between the Sikh protesters and the officers of the Union and the state.
In the end we hope good sense would prevail and the Good Samaritans would settle this imbroglio or calling the Sikhs radicals and fishing in troubled waters would mean a further distancing with communal overturns.
The editor does not print the news of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) or our riposte. This is not freedom of speech and expression.
Simranjit Singh Mānn,
President,
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar),
Email: simranjitsinghmann@yahoo.com
website: https://akalidalamritsar.in/
facebook page: @sardarsimranjitsinghmann