Sehajdhari rights and sikh quota

There have been ample amount of issues within our community which are either under-estimated or inadequately addressed by our community leaders but I decided to resurrect them with a hope to make a positive change which could materialize into the guidelines for better future prospects of our community. So, in order to make this change happen, I brainstormed over the critical sehajdhari issue and attainment of a full-fledged “minority status” for our community to protect our identity and secure the future of our coming generations.

Beginning with the Sehajdhari issue which has maintained its status quo since last SGPC elections which has been literally working on extension and the so-called mini sikh parliament being so vulnerable to a long-pending judgment by the Supreme Court of India that it could end up in the dissolution of the house at any time.

Now taking note of the legal definition of a sehajdhari, I would first like to request my entire community to kindly look at the larger picture and realize that we are hardly 2.5 crore in number worldwide taking together all sehajdhari, keshdhari or amrit-dhari Sikhs. Hence we need to transcend such personal differences and get together to face bigger issues being faced by our community and realize the vulnerability we are subject to because of this infighting.

Now before coming to the issue of voting rights for Sehajdharis in SGPC elections, I would rather like to remind the ground realities observed in the last elections where things came out in public domain through print media that in many booths many non-Sikhs including Hindus, Muslims and Christians had casted their vote as they were the registered voters and the barbers across the state of Punjab had a really busy time once the SGPC elections were over because there were a set of voters who had actually grown their hair and their beards to cast their votes in the elections.

Now let me come to the Punjabi definition of a sikh that has been approved by SGPC which has no mention of hair and turban in it. It goes as:

Oh istari jaa’n purush jo:

i) Ik akaal purakh

ii) Das guru sahibaan

iii) Das guru sahbaan di baani te sikhiya

iv)  Sri guru granth sahib, ate

v)  Dashmesh pitaa de amrit

Utte nischa rakhda hai ate kise hor dharam nu nahi mandaa, oh SIKH hai.

This is almost a perfectly universal definition of a Sikh which doesn’t have any mention about the uncut hair, turban or technicalities of the rehatnama. So now, taking in view this definition of a Sikh, my views about sehajdhari issue goes as:

Sehajdhari Sikhs should be allowed to vote in the SGPC elections but certain clauses should be strictly kept in mind for the same:

i) Any person having “sehajdhari” status can only exercise his/ her voting rights but is in no way eligible to contest the SGPC elections.

ii)   Any “sehajdhari” Sikh who has attained the status of a complete Sikh by going through baptism and public declaration of the same, can only express his/ her willingness to contest SGPC elections by submitting a written statement to Akal Takhat secretariat and a copy of the same should be forwarded to the Union Home Ministry (who is actually the legal authority to give a nod for these elections) and the office of the Chief Minister of Punjab.

iii)  Any “sehajdhari” sikh who has attained the status of a complete sikh if wins the elections is eligible to join the office, subject to various conditions:

•  Once a complete sikh and a member of SGPC he/ she cannot claim to be a sehajdhari again in a lifetime and owes complete adherence to the rehatnama like any other sikh.
•  In case of any violation of the code of conduct, his/ her membership would be suspended by the Union Home ministry / Chief Minister of Punjab (which are at par in constitutional power hierarchy) based on a report sent to them by the Akal Takhat secretariat. And that particular seat of SGPC shall deem to be vacant.
•  Such “sehajdhari” sikh if once expelled from the house shall be declared ineligible to contest the elections for the lifetime.

iv)  As, the term of the house is for 5 years, by-polls should be conducted annually or bi-annually for all the vacant seats.

Now, I firmly believe that if such law is enacted, it would minimize the infighting within our community and the “sehajdhari” Sikhs would get rid of that sense of alienation. This is not the end of benefits for the enactment of such law. It would rather make the status of our community more clear in national politics and would make the picture clearer to press our demands for a larger good for the community and I believe one such issue that we could purse after resolving this “sehajdhari” row is the attainment of full-fledged minority status for ourselves to protect our identity. Actually, this is the need of the hour. We must take into account the Indian and the international demographic structure and locate our status in it; we are bound to get shocked by the alarming numbers.

Hence, I think we must pursue a common agenda to attain a religious minority status in India in order to claim reservation in the institutions and recruitments of Central Government. Even, this shouldn’t be made randomly. A proper law should be made to enact the reservations to the sikh community. As, the economic aspect is never taken into account to extend reservation in India, it is solely based on castes, hence, the GOI should extend reservation to religious minorities as well, and the guidelines for sikh-reservation can be made as:

1.  No sehajdhari sikh should be entitled to reservation.
2.  Reservation should be meant for only keshdhaari/ amritdhari Sikhs who have secured the visual identity of Sikhism.
3.  Any person giving up his/ her visual identity after claiming benefits of reservation would be scrapped of all the benefits, be it admission in a govt. run institution or a job with a govt. organization.

Because, if this law is enacted at the all India level, it would not only help get rid of apostasy (patit-puna) but it would also give a positive motivation to the Indian sikh youth to respect the sikh insignia and would start keeping and carrying them with grace, dignity and self-confidence.

Though, I’m not an expert policy-maker or lawmaker but I’m sure that this article would give many experts some points to ponder over and the dignity and self-esteem of our community could be restored and we would never feel left-out and second to anyone in any part of the world.