Baisakhi: Sikhs dedicate festival to save girl child

KANPUR: The festival of Baisakhi was dedicated to save girl child this year. It was celebrated with enthusiasm and fervour in the city on Saturday. Wearing traditional costumes and drenched in devotion, people thronged gurudwaras. A cultural mela was organized atMootijheel in which people took 'BetiBachao' oath. Ragi of Amritsar Sahib Jagjeet SinghKomal administered the oath.

Members of the Sikh community started visiting gurdwaras since morning to attend special prayers. At noon, after the Baisakhi ardas, prasad was distributed. Special prayers were held at Gurudwara Bhai Banno Sahib on GT Road.

Hundreds of people visited Moothijheel ground to witness Baisakhi Mela.

In the evening, men were seen dancing on the deafening dhol beats in the artificially made green fields. India Got Talent participant Veer Khalsa Team from Punjab took part in the event.The Veer Khalsa team members and Ragi of Amritsar Sahib also announced that Beti Bachao campaign would continue in gurudwaras in the city. Nukkad nataks and skits were also organized to create awareness against heinous practice of female feoticide.Neetu Singh, chairperson, Sikh Welfare Society, said Ragi of Amritsar Sahib Jagjeet Singh Komal had announced to distribute symbolic saplings to the devotees to be planted at homes. These saplings would be named after the daughter of the family."This is a unique way to make people realize that daughters are like trees who always bear fruits and give shade. We must take care of trees and daughters alike," Neetu Singh added.

Baisakhi has its origin to the celebrations in 1699 organized by the tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh to form the Khalsa. Baisakhi is also known as the festival of harvest.

with thanks : Times of India : LINK

LONDON Southall Vaisakhi Mela 2013

Happy Baisakhi

SGPC cancels Sikh jatha's Pak visit

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has cancelled the visit of a 1,400-strong Sikh jatha to Pakistan due to the denial of visas to a majority of the applicants. 

The Pakistan High Commission has denied visas to more than 1,350 pilgrims, apparently due to political uncertainty and law and order problem in the neighbouring country. The jatha was scheduled to leave for Lahore on Wednesday on a 10-day visit to Pakistan to pay obeisance at historic gurdwaras to mark Baisakhi.

Stating this here, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar expressed resentment over the visa denial, saying that it was a matter of grave concern for the Sikh community.

Makkar, who presided over the SGPC executive meeting here, said the committee had sent a list of 1,400 applicants to the union government sometime ago, but it was forwarded to the Pakistan embassy only on April 4.

He pointed out that the SGPC had 60% quota for Pakistan visas during Baisakhi and other Sikh religious occasions when the community from across the world paid obeisance at Sikh shrines in Pakistan.

In 1999, the SGPC had cancelled the jatha's visit in protest against the formation of a separate Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee under the aegis of the Waqf Board there. Bibi Jagir Kaur was then the SGPC president.

DSGMC follows suit

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), also governed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), has decided to cancel its jatha's visit, even though the Pakistan authorities granted visas to 157 of the 171 applicants.

DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK told HT on the phone from Delhi that the committee had decided to cancel its tour in protest against the overall large-scale denial of visas. He said the few people who had got visas could visit Pakistan at their own risk.

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

64 pvt schools should refund excess fees to parents: panel to HC

Apr 05, 2013

The judicial panel, set up by the Delhi High Court, has recommended that more than 60 schools have to refund the excess fees charged by them in 2009 without paying salaries to their teaching and non-teaching staff as per the Sixth Pay Commission.

A three-member committee headed by former Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Anil Dev Singh, set up last year, has examined the financial records of 200 schools on a random basis out of total 1172 schools and submitted its first interim report before the bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Siddharth Mridul yesterday.

The committee said in its report that 64 schools "unjustly" increased fees and recommended that all of them refund the same with 9 percent interest to the parents.

As per the panel report, the group of Guru Harkrishan Public Schools, including the one on Purana Qila Road, Hargovind Enclave and Vasant Vihar branches, Guru Nanak Public School in Pushpanjali Enclave, Guru Teg Bahadur Public School in Model Town and others have to refund the extra fees with interest to the parents.

"The committee, therefore, recommends that the schools be directed to refund the increased monthly fee with effect from September 2008 till the date of actual refund along with the interest at the rate of 9 percent per annum. The school should also refund the arrear of fees recovered from the students along with the interest of 9 percent," the panel said.

"Since the annual fee of the school is increased by about 10 percent every year, there would be a ripple effect in the fee for the years subsequent to 2009-2010....," the report also said.

with thanks : Indian Express : LINK

Judgment reserved in anti-Sikh riots case

The judgment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Sajjan Kumar is accused of instigating violence against Sikhs was reserved by a Sessions court here on Wednesday after the prosecution and defence completed their final arguments. District Judge J. R. Aryan said he will take up the matter on April 16 for seeking further clarifications, from both parties, if needed.

Appearing for Mr. Kumar, defence counsel I. U. Khan argued that the key witness, Jagdish Kaur, had not named him in her affidavit before the Ranganath Mishra Commission in 1985 and also did not point out the absence of his name in that affidavit to the Nanavati Commission appointed by the NDA Government.

Regarding her claim that she had seen Mr. Kumar addressing a crowd from atop a police jeep in the Delhi Cantonment area, Mr. Khan argued that considering the distance from where she said she saw him, it would not have been possible for her to see him.

The defence counsel also claimed that though an FIR relating to 30 murders in Raj Nagar was filed and 23 complaints were made by relatives, gurdwara committees and other associations, not one of them had named Mr. Kumar.

However, CBI counsel D. P. Singh rebutted this contention saying that it was the CBI case that the Delhi Police had eliminated all traces of any complaints mentioning Mr. Kumar’s name.

Mr. Khan also alleged that Ms. Kaur had not named Jagsher Singh, her relative, as an eyewitness before either the Mishra or Nanavati Commissions, and took his name for the first time before the CBI only in 2006. Jagsher Singh had allegedly seen and heard Mr. Kumar scolding his supporters for not inflicting adequate damage on Sikh properties and urging them to not spare Hindus who sheltered Sikhs. “Whatever Jagsher Singh saw, he would have told Jagdish Kaur. How come, all these years, she never mentioned his name?” Mr. Khan asked.

Defence counsel Anil Sharma, appearing for five other accused, argued that out of 17 prosecution witnesses, only three had named his clients in the case. “Out of 35 prosecution witnesses, CBI had examined 17 and only three of them had named Balwan Khokkar, Kishan Khokkar, Mahender Yadav, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal. Why should we believe those three witnesses and not the 14 witnesses who had not named them,” he said.

Concluding his arguments, Mr. Singh said that the Bureau had conducted an honest investigation and that the prosecution has limited itself to what each of the witnesses had seen at the time of the incident. He emphasised that the CBI witnesses had made an honest recollection of the facts of the case before the court.

Before Mr. Aryan reserved orders, senior advocate H. S. Phoolka, counsel for the riot victims, stood up and said: “After conducting the inquiry, running into over four years, the Nanavati Commission had primarily recommended registration of the cases against two political leaders, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. Against Jagdish Tytler, the CBI has already filed the closure report, and against Sajjan Kumar the present trial is going on. Not just the entire country, the whole world was waiting for justice in the case because 5,000 people were killed and the culprits were yet to be brought to book.”

The defence counsel vociferously objected to Mr. Phoolka’s intervention.

with thanks : The Hindu : LINK

Man charged with hate crime in brutal assault on Sikh cab driver

By Kim Murphy

April 3, 2013, 6:40 a.m.

SEATTLE—A man accused of brutally attacking a Sikh cab driver, stomping on him as he lay on the ground and ripping out part of his beard, has been indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with a hate crime.

The indictment of Jamie Larson, 49, of Federal Way, Wash., replaces earlier state charges. Conviction under the federal hate crimes statute carries a potential penalty of 10 years in prison.

King County authorities who initially investigated the case said the taxi driver, a native of India, was wearing a traditional Sikh turban when he responded to a request from Auburn police on Oct. 17 to take Larson home from a Fred Meyer store, where he was drunk, falling in the bushes and refusing to leave. 

Along the way, the driver later told police, Larson commented on his turban and told him he shouldn’t have come to the U.S., saying his father was a soldier who had fought for America.

Once they arrived at Larson’s home, the defendant began savagely beating the 50-year-old driver, shouting racial epithets, punching him in the face and jumping on him, according to county charging documents.

Horrified neighbors called police, who handcuffed Larson and interviewed the driver, who was walking around in a daze before beginning to vomit repeatedly.

Larson told officers the driver was a “towel head” and an “Iranian, Iraqi rag head,” the indictment alleges.

“We have Americans fighting overseas, and why doesn’t he go back there,” one officer quoted the defendant as saying.

Larson was initially charged in King County Superior Court with malicious harassment based on the victim's race, religion or ethnicity, a state hate crime charge. King County prosecutors dismissed those charges this week in hopes Larson would get a longer prison term under federal law. He appeared in federal court Tuesday under the new indictment. 

Federal prosecutors said they would seek to have him detained before trial. According to King County prosecutors, Larson has been booked 19 times since 1986 with 34 warrants, on charges including disorderly conduct, assault, possession of marijuana and various cases of malicious mischief.

“Attacks such as this one, based on prejudice and racial hate, are contrary to who we are and violate the law,” U.S. Atty. Jenny Durkan said in a statement.

with thanks : latimes : LINK

Sikh Americans join Obama in urging lawmakers on gun control

WASHINGTON: The Sikh Americans today joined US President Barack Obama in urging the lawmakers to pass laws to curb gun violence in the United States.

Several eminent members of the Sikh and Hindu community were invited to the White House to attend an event wherein Obama reiterated his call to the Congress to urgently pass the gun control laws, so as to curb the recent spike in shooting incidents in the country.

 "It is important that we, people inspired by our faiths, must work towards making our society safe and sound for all people and especially for our children. The measures which keeps guns out of the hands of criminals and people with severe mental illness is something which should be supported by all and we urge the congress to take the lead," Rajwant Singh, chairman of Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE), said after the White House event.

Singh attended the event along with a delegation of Sikh leaders, including Prabhjot Singh Kohli, chairman of Guru Nanak Foundation of America (GNFA); Amarjeet Singh Sandhu, an official of Gurdwara Sant Sagar in Burtonsville, Maryland, and Guransh Singh, a Churchill High School student.

Siva Subramanian from the Shiva Vishnu Temple in Maryland also present.

"We, four members of the Sikh community, represented half a dozen members in a shootout at a Gurudwara in Wisconsin on 5th August 2012. This was a great tragedy for all the Sikhs in America and we feared that if this does not stop here, there is a possibility of more such tragedies in other gurudwaras and other places in America. So we are actively supporting the control of guns going in the wrong hands," said Prabhjot.

In his remarks, Obama expressed his frustration at the lack of action by lawmakers and made a forceful plea to remember the horror of the December massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. and to take steps aimed at preventing future gun violence.

"Less than 100 days ago that happened, and the entire country was shocked. The entire country pledged we would do something about it and that this time would be different. Shame on us if we've forgotten. I haven't forgotten those kids," Obama said.

"This is the country's best chance in more than a decade to take common-sense steps to pass laws that will save lives from gun violence," Obama said.

with thanks : Times of India : LINK

HAPPY HOLI !

SGND Khalsa College,Dev Nagar,University of Delhi

A Conference / Workshop held on Human Rights. 

Gurmat Samagam by Nirbhao Sikh Society

A massive gathering of almost two thousand persons was present at the Hola Mohalla Gurmat Samagam at Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Krishna nagar. 

A well organised programme by Nirbhao Sikh Society, was attended by Dr Harshvardhan (MLA), Smt Kalpana Jain (Councillor), Dr V K Monga, Sd. Jatinder singh Shunty, Sd Manmohan singh Mintoo, Sd Jatinder pal singh Goldy, Sd Ravinder singh Lovly, Sd Darshan singh, Sd Gurcharan Singh gatka master, Sd Balbir singh vivek vihar alongwith many more known personalities of the area including SHO Krishna nagar.

Ragi jathas included Bhai Amar singh ji, Bhai Pavandeep singh ji ( Kanpuri ), Bhai Amarjit singh ji ( Patiala wale ), Giani Gurdev singh ji ( Australia wale ) and Bhai Manpreet singh ji Kanpuri.

"Nirbhau Sikh Society is a recently launched Sikh society by the young blood of Krishna nagar & the efforts done by it in making the programme a success is really commendable", said Sd Darshan sigh ji President Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Krishna Nagar.

"The sangat really was in high spirits during the programme & i request to the young blood to keep on doing the sewa", said Sd Jatinder Singh ji Shunty.