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9th August, 2009
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Sikh writer, activist and philanthropist Patwant Singh is no more

New Delhi, India: Well known Sikh Writer and philanthropist Patwant Singh has passed away in the national capital following a cardiac arrest. He was 84. Singh, who died at his residence here yesterday, is survived by wife Meher and adopted son Satjiv Singh Chahil.

Singh wrote over 10 books on history, politics and international affairs. His latest ‘Empire of the Sikhs: The Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’ was released in Washington DC on June 18. Educated in Delhi, Patwant Singh, who made headlines with path-breaking Design magazine before turning his focus to issues that the Sikh community was grappling with, authored a definitive biography of Bhagat Puran Singh and several books about Sikhs.

The cremation will be at 6 pm in Delhi on Saturday, Aug 8, at the Lodhi Road crematorium.

Patwant Singh was a much respected commentator on Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Second Kashmir War in 1965. Since 1984, Patwant Singh delved deep into Sikh issues, editing and contributing the opening essay of Punjab: The Fatal Miscalculation, which was published in 1985. The Golden Temple, published in 1989, aimed to be the definitive volume on the Harimandir Sahib and show how central this “fountain of inspiration” has been to Sikhs since its construction.

Garland Around My Neck, the story of Bhagat Puran Singh, the barefoot soldier of remarkable humanitarian concerns was presented by Patwant Singh as a colossus that he was in real life.

Patwant Singh also wrote extensively for newspapers and magazines. Many in the US last remember him for his lecture on July 22, 2006 at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York in conjunction with, I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion, an exhibition jointly sponsored by the Sikh Foundation and the Sikh Art and Film Foundation.

His book The Sikhs, published in London by John Murray and in India by Harper Collins in March 1999 and in the US by Alfred Knopf and Canada by Random House in 2000, remains a best seller. Doubleday published the paperback edition in the US, as did Rupa in India. His articles appeared in The New York Times, Canada’s Globe and Mail, the UK’s Independent and elsewhere.

Source: sikhsangat.org

SikhsIndia

EXTREME RACISM - REALLY SHOCKING

SikhsIndia
7th August, 2009

.....a deep sense of shame at the treatment meted out to a party of Sikhs whose coach caught fire on Tuesday. They were returning to their homes in Luton from a day out at the seaside when their double-decker bus burst into flames. They managed to get out with the help of an off-duty policeman seconds before it exploded and melted. As they stood terrified on the hard-shoulder, passing motorists not only failed to stop and help, but actually slowed down to hurl racist abuse at the victims. Several gave them the finger and shouted at them to bet back into the blazing coach.....

Please read detailed news in this blog as " Our shameful treatment of Britain's Sikh saviours." Please mail your comments.

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Top 51 Sikhs

Times Books (publisher) with TOI, Nav Bharat Times & Ayur have published a book named TOP 51 SIKHS. The official description is as below :

Sikhs have always been an integral part of India. Their contribution to the country and society is outstandi ng. This book honours 51 best Sikhs of India. Featuring names likes Ajit Cour, Deepak Sandhu, Capt. Amrinder Singh, Manmohan Singh, KPS Gill, JJ Valaya, Milkha Singh, Khuswant Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Daler Mehendi, Mandira Bedi, Manpreet Brar and more. It highlights their achievements and contribution the society. The book aims to serve as an inspiration for many.



Though the official price is Rs. 399 /-, NBC India.com is offering 25% discount. NBC price is Rs. 299.25

BJP demands statement from PM on gurdwara committees

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, August 06, 2009

Both houses of parliament were repeatedly disrupted on Thursday following protests from the Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Haryana's decision to form a separate Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to manage Sikh shrines in the state, even as a demand for a statement on the issue by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was turned down.

"Why are you bringing the leader of the house into this?" Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan asked SS Ahluwalia when he demanded a statement from Manmohan Singh.

MPs from the Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were on their feet in both houses against what they saw as the government's move to have separate SGPCs in each state. Currently, the SGPC in Amritsar is the supreme body controlling Sikh shrines and religious affairs.

Unable to pacify the MPs, presiding officers of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were forced to adjourn proceedings twice.

In the Lok Sabha, two Akali Dal members Harsimrat Kaur and Ratanjit Ajnala went towards the speaker's podium to demand the suspension of question hour to discuss the issue.

There was also a heated exchange of words on the issue between leader of the house and Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav.

Speaker Meira Kumar had initially adjourned the house till 11.30 am. However, the protests continued when the house resumed and she adjourned the house till 12 noon.

Both the houses reassembled at noon. In the Lok Sabha, Akali Dal members were allowed to put forth their opinion. However, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 1 pm after the protests continued unabated.

When the Rajya Sabha reassembled, Ahluwalia said: "This is a religious matter. The leader of the house should respond." Khan, however, shot this down.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has declared that the separate SGPC will become a reality on Nov 1, Haryana Day. The announcement was received with both anger and anxiety by the SGPC, a mini parliament of Sikhs with an annual turnover of around Rs 400 crore.

The Haryana government's decision has come five months after the Chatha Committee, set up by Hooda to study the possibilities of having a separate Sikh body in the state, gave its recommendations this February based on 128,566 affidavits of Sikh activists. Following this, the government had formed a three-member committee under the advocate general to examine the case and facilitate its implementation.

The demand first came to the fore when seven Haryana members of the 170-seat SGPC levelled allegations of neglect of the state's historical gurdwaras "even though they were adding Rs 10 crore of revenue in the SGPC's kitty every year".

There are seven major historical gurdwaras in Haryana under the direct control of the SGPC. Eighteen others are under its indirect control -- elected members form the local management and one member from the SGPC is co-opted into the panel.

with thanks : source : http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=f6230c20-b483-4a1d-a72a-f8414d3cb46b&Headline=BJP-nbsp-demands-PM-s-statement-on-SGPC

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SGPC alleges Cong politicising Sikh body issue

SGPC alleges Cong politicising Sikh body issue
Meetu Jain / CNN-IBN


New Delhi: Sikh politics threatens to resurface and cause some social, religious and political turbulence in the days to come.


In what's being considered a masterstroke by the Congress, the Haryana government is considering setting up an independent Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for Haryana.


The new body is to be formed on the lines of the Delhi committee and would break the monopoly of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC).


It will help the Congress party get a toehold in Akali politics ahead of the Assembly polls of Haryana.


The issue rocked Parliament on Thursday but the Haryana chief minister was quick to deny any motives.


Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, "I am willing to go for a referendum. I am ready to abide by whatever the Sikhs of Haryana decide."


The Haryana Sikh is expected to vote for an independent body as it means not just political clout but enough money power as well. But it's a move that is not going to go down well with the rest of the political class.


MP of Akali Dal, Harsimrat Kaur said, "In the last four years, Haryana saw no need to set up its own SGPC. Now as elections approach, this is a move to interfere into the religious affairs of a religious community for a handful of votes and political gains."


Rajya Sabha Deputy Chief Whip from BJP, SS Ahluwalia said, "The leader of Parliament, who incidentally is a Sikh and the Prime Minister of the country, should not do this."


The Hooda government has for the moment given an assurance in the Assembly that the recommendations of the Chaddha Committee set up for the purpose will be examined.


It is not for the first time that the Congress has tried to politicise Sikh sentiments. Now, ahead of the assembly elections the Congress is once again hoping to use Sikhs as a vote bank and at the same time, break the monopoly of the Akali Dal and the SGPC.

with thanks : source : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sgpc-alleges-cong-politicising-sikh-body-issue/98727-37.html

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Our shameful treatment of Britain's Sikh saviours

By : Dean Nelson
Dean Nelson is the Telegraph Media Group's South Asia editor. He has been based in New Delhi for three years.

With the deployment of two turbaned guards at Buckingham Palace this week, Britain’s Sikh community had cause to feel a little more appreciated than they have been over the years. To say the honour was a little late - more than 150 years after their troops came to the rescue of besieged British officers in the Indian mutiny, more than 60 after thousands of Sikhs gave their lives in Europe to save Britain from Hitler’s Germany - would be an understatement.

But any sense of satisfaction that a neglected community had finally been given the recognition it had been denied for so long was quickly replaced by a deep sense of shame at the treatment meted out to a party of Sikhs whose coach caught fire on Tuesday. They were returning to their homes in Luton from a day out at the seaside when their double-decker bus burst into flames. They managed to get out with the help of an off-duty policeman seconds before it exploded and melted. As they stood terrified on the hard-shoulder, passing motorists not only failed to stop and help, but actually slowed down to hurl racist abuse at the victims. Several gave them the finger and shouted at them to bet back into the blazing coach.
I grew up with racism. I remember being shocked the first time I saw a West Indian boy at the end of my Nan’s garden in Stoke Newington. It was the late 1960s, I was around five, and had been drawn by the mesmerising sound of steel drums one Sunday morning. I could not believe my eyes, I stared, and was clocked in the head for my rudeness.


I remember helping the milkman deliver free milk to Bangladeshi immigrants in Stepney two or three years later as he complained about ‘these F***ing Pakis, always paying with ‘tokens,’ the last word said in a bad Indian accent and with a wobble of his head. In my own family, my parents were always polite and friendly to all, but when my Dad, then a London bus driver, brought home his West Indian conductor for tea in the late 1960s, my Mum feared what our docker neighbours in Poplar, east London, might think.

I remember when we were later slum-cleared to an estate in Essex, how our neighbours, who’d by then bought their council homes, had threatened another because he had sold his to a ‘wog.’ Then, despite being part of an exodus from slum housing, many used to say they were ‘getting away from the blacks’ who’d moved into London’s poorer areas in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Theirs was the racism of ignorance and fear: poor people who felt their way of life was threatened by the smell of unfamiliar food, the sudden gaudiness of painted houses in our grey world, and newcomers they feared would take their jobs by working for less.

It took around 30 years for racism to become something widely regarded as shameful in Britain. I think the Daily Mail’s campaign for justice for Stephen Lawrence, the young black teenager murdered by fascist thugs in south-east London, was a landmark. My Mum was later mortified at how she had reacted to my Dad’s friend several decades earlier. Once-‘smelly’ Chicken Tikka Masala later replaced fish and chips or roast beef as our national dish, and today we’re all in love with Bollywood.

I don’t believe my racist neighbours of the 1970s would have passed by a coach party of terrified Sikhs without offering to help. For all their ignorance, they valued their own sense of themselves as being ‘decent people.’ I wonder how these motorway racists think of themselves? Here in Delhi today, the story of my ‘fellow’ countrymen’s treatment of these terrified Sikhs is all over the Indian newspapers, and I’m conscious that our hosts will regard me as somehow connected to these barbarians. As the Sikhs prepare to honour the off-duty policeman who did go to their rescue,I feel ashamed to be British.

it's source : with thanks : http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/deannelson/100005641/our-shameful-treatment-of-britains-sikh-saviours/

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Remembering '84 riot victims with green pledge

Remembering '84 riot victims with green pledge
Smriti Singh, TNN 2 August 2009, 12:14am IST

NEW DELHI: Twenty-five years after thousands of Sikhs lost their lives in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, families of the victims have taken solace in
nature. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the carnage, hundreds of Sikhs planted over 250 saplings around the Karkardooma court complex on Saturday.

Gathered in large numbers outside the court complex, where the hearing of one of the riot-related cases was going one, people planted saplings as a life-affirming gesture to humankind. Amid heavy police presence to avert any tension during the hearing many families quietly planted trees in memory of their loved ones.

Gurdeep Singh, one of the volunteers, said that by going back to nature, he wanted to spread the message of love and harmony. "I lost two members of my family in the carnage and the pain of losing someone you love is immense. By planting a tree in their remembrance, I am also contributing to nature,'' he said.

The cause initiated by Gyan Sewa Trust and Sant Baba Sewa Singh Ji, Panjab, witnessed the participation of various other independent Sikh organizations. The tree plantation drive, according to H S Phoolka, senior lawyer and chairman of Gyan Sewa Trust, was a way to connect with people for a common cause. "With increasing global warming and depleting greenery in Delhi, we feel it is absolutely important to undertake such campaigns and to connect with people on issues that have an emotional appeal,'' Phoolka said.

Around 1,000 saplings have already been planted in south Delhi in the drive that started on July 27. "We have a target of planting 25,000 trees across the city by November, which will mark 25 years since the tragedy took place,'' Phoolka added.

And the drive does not end here. The planted trees will be maintained by the organizations for one year across the city.

with thanks : source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Delhi/Remembering-84-riot-victims-with-green-pledge/articleshow/4846540.cms

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Sikhs at the North Pole

Sikhs at the North Pole
by Gurpreet Singh Anand

On 15th July at 11:57 pm three Sikhs reached the North Pole aboard the Russian nuclear ice breaker "50 Years of Victory "

"T50 Lyet Pobyedi" (50 years of Victory) is the latest icebreaker of the Russian Navy and every summer it takes two voyages with private passengers to the North Pole

It is an Arktika-class icebreaker and has a double hull, with the outer hull being approximately 48 mm thick at the ice-breaking areas and 25 mm thick elsewhere. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of water from jets 9 m below the surface. The ship has a polymer coated hulls to reduce friction. Arktika-class ships can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards. These ships must cruise in cold water, in order to cool their reactors. As a result, they cannot pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern Hemisphere. Although they have two reactors, normally only one is used to provide power, with the other being maintained in a standby mode.

This is first time ever for Sikhs to reach the North Pole. It is also the first for an Indian living in India as earlier only one Indian living in Europe travelled last year to the North Pole. Sardar Gurpreet Singh Anand and Sardarni Gurmeet Kaur Anand are from Delhi and the third Sikh on board, Arvindar Pal Singh Bahal is from Boston and has been living in USA for the last 38 years.

A total of 128 passengers from 24 countries sailed on the Russian Nuclear Powered Ice Breaker from the Russian Port of Murmansk on 10th July 2009.The ship is part of the regular Russian Nuclear Fleet and in summer takes passengers through the US based company Quark Expeditions to the North Pole .

After cutting through the frozen Arctic Ocean, the Ice breaker reached the North Pole at 90 degrees North at 11:57 pm on 15th July 2009. On arrival all the passengers made a circle with their hands joined symbolising world peace circling the North Pole Banner planted in the frozen ice.This was a proud moment for India when for the first time four people living in India landed at the pole and proudly held the Indian flag. Mr. and Mrs Badri from Mumbai and Sardarni and Sardar Gurpreet Singh Anand from India carried the flag.

Also on board carrying the Indian flag was Sardar Arvinder Singh Bahal from Boston USA and Dr Rao from Las Vegas. Dr Rama and his wife Pat Jaeger joined in taking pictures on this momentous occasion. It was a great moment of pride for us being first civilian citizens of India to ever have reached the North Pole and first time Sikhs carried the Indian Tri-colour.

All three Sikhs have been to both poles of the earth.The South Pole (Antarctica;) the North Pole and also the Everest Base Camp (Not the summit of the Everest.) Only around 300 persons all told have been to both the poles and is not known to us how many fewer have been to Everest base camp as well.

On 20th July during the voyage, Sardar Arvinder Singh Bahal gave a demonstration of how to tie a turban to the crew and passengers. Sardar Gurpreet Singh Anand explained to the passengers the importance of the Turban in a Sikh's life along with its history and answered questions from those assembled.

with thanks : source : http://www.sikhnet.com/news/sikhs-north-pole

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SGPC meeting at Chandigarh on Aug 10

Amritsar, Aug 4 (PTI) Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee president Avtar Singh Makkar today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene to stall the Congress's move of setting up a separate Sikh Gurdwara Committee in Haryana.

He said that setting up of a separate SGPC in Haryana was a direct intervention in the internal affairs of Sikh community on the part of Congress government of Haryana.

He said that keeping in view of latest move of separate SGPC by Haryana Government, it was decided to call special session of SGPC in Amritsar at the mini Sikh Parliament on August 14 and executive meeting of SGPC fixed at Chandigarh on August 10 to decide the further course of action to stall the move of Haryana Government.

Makkar condemned the announcement made by the Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda for the formation of separate SGPC from November one onwards this year.

with thanks : source : http://ptinews.com/news/212538_SGPC-meeting-at-Chandigarh-on-Aug-10

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Group flees as coach catches fire

An off-duty policeman stopped the coach to tell the driver it was on fire

An investigation is under way after a coach carrying a group from a Sikh temple in Bedfordshire caught fire.

All 66 on board, mostly women and children from the Gurdwara in Luton, got off the coach uninjured seconds before it burst into flames.

The driver pulled onto the hard shoulder of the M3 at Basingstoke, Hampshire, when smoke began billowing from the double-decker coach.

The group were returning from a trip to a Sikh camp on Friday evening.

Luton-based coach company, Premier Travel, said it was carrying out an investigation with the Vehicle Inspectorate.

One of those on board, Sukhdev Kaur Rajoo, said an off-duty police officer from the Met Police who was following the coach helped them get off safely.

The group stayed on the hard shoulder, wrapped in foil blankets, until another coach was sent to collect them. The Confederation of Passenger Transport UK released a statement on behalf of the coach company.

Spokesman Christopher Nice said: "The quick thinking and professionalism shown by our driver enabled all of the 66 passengers onboard to be promptly evacuated from the vehicle and led to a safe location.

"We praise our driver for not only safely and expertly evacuating the passengers from the coach, but also making sure that other road users were not placed at any risk."

Around 25 firefighters from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service attended at 1930 BST and worked for an hour and a half to put out the fire.

The coach had pulled over between junctions 5 and 6.

The fire caused the temporary closure of the northbound carriageway of the M3 at Basingstoke, from about 1945 BST, with traffic diverted to the A30, Hampshire Police said.

with thanks : source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8180293.stm

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