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USA Akaal Takhat Forms Committee To Represent US Sikhs

Jan 6, 2005
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Metro-Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Akaal Takhat Forms Committee to Represent US Sikhs

VIPs make controversial stops during US visit

By Anju Kaur, SikhNN staff writer, Washington Bureau

Posted: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 | 12:13 am


AmericanRepresentation_lede.jpg


Sikh VIPs arrive in New York for a week-long tour announcing a US committee to address Sikh grievances on behalf of the Akal Takhat. From left to right, Satpal Singh Khalsa, convener of the committee, Giani Ranjit Singh, head granthee of Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, Mohinder Singh Taneja, a committee member, Akal Takhat Jathedaar Gurbachan Singh, and far right, Jathedaar Patna Sahib Ranjit Singh.
Photo Source: Satpal Singh Khalsa



The Akaal Takhat has formed a seven-member US committee to address the large volume of gurdwara disputes and also to advocate for all issues affecting Sikhs in the US, including hate crimes, school bullying and airport-security profiling.

The committee was announced during a late August trip to the US by three Sikh dignitaries from India – Gurbachan Singh, jathedaar of the Akaal Takhat; Iqbal Singh, jathedaar of Takhat Patna Sahib; and Ranjit Singh, head granthee of Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.

In an exclusive interview after his return to India, Jathedaar Gurbachan Singh told SikhNN that the need for such a committee emerged from the Rochester court case. He had been working with the New York sangat for a long time to reverse the Kirpan ban at the Gurdwara of Rochester, imposed by its trustees in 2010. He formed an independent committee of US Sikhs to study court documents, to talk with players on both side of the lawsuit, and to report its findings and recommendations to him.

As a result, Santokh Badesha, head of the board of trustees was summoned in April to appear before the Akal Takhat to answer for his actions. Badesha never went to Amritsar, but the pressure was enough for the trustees to have the court lift the ban.

When the jathedaar arrived in New York on Aug. 24, he met with Parminder Singh Soch, a plaintiff in the Rochester case, who advised him of other issues in the ongoing case.

“I will not let them go like this,” the jathedaar told him, Parminder Singh said. “I will definitely take care of this when I go back.”

Like in the Rochester case, the Akal Takhat receives many complaints from sangat members from other states requesting guidance or intervention, Gurbachan Singh said by phone.

The calls kept coming even during his US visit, said Satpal Singh Khalsa of New Mexico, head of the Rochester committee, who travelled with the VIPs. The jathedaar made several stops to address the most egregious cases.

He met with the parties in the Tierra Buena Sikh Temple dispute, in Yuba City, California, that ended with a stabbing last November. He advised that Didar Singh Bains, the ousted head of the gurdwara, should be respected for his 50 years of contributions to the community, Satpal Singh Khalsa said. He also mediated a conflict at the El Sobrante Gurdwara in California.

But the jathedaar cannot personally come for every dispute.

In the continuing success of the Rochester committee’s service as a liaison between the Akal Takhat and the local sangat, the jathedaar envisioned a more effective strategy: Let the committee do the leg work in these cases and present the facts for a final decision from the Akal Takhat. Perhaps these disputes can be resolved before the parties go to court and spend an excessive amount of the sangat’s money, Satpal Singh Khalsa said.

The jathedaar told SikhNN that he would advance the role of the Rochester committee to now take charge, on behalf of the Akaal Takhat, of all issues facing Sikhs in the United States.

And he is not limiting the committee’s scope to gurdwara management issues. The Akal Takhat “receives many other calls on many other matters,” Satpal Singh Khalsa said. The committee also will address advocacy issues such as hate crimes, school bullying, and airport-security profiling.

Satpal Singh Khalsa was appointed as the convener of the committee. He has been a US representative of the Akal Takhat since 2000, when he was first appointed by then Jathedaar Joginder Singh Vedanti. Gurbachan Singh continued the appointment, he said.

As a card-carrying representative of the Akal Takhat, the highest temporal authority of the Sikhs, he has been able to wield his authority recently with Transportation and Security Agency officers in one airport-security situation in which he saved a Sikh man from a turban search.

But the committee’s role would be more proactive, he said.

“We will go especially to law enforcement and police departments,” he said. “We will be working with all the advocacy groups. They are doing a fine job but we want to go a step further and educate them (law enforcement, public officials and the mainstream) before these things happen.”

The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and United Sikhs, did not return requests for comment. The response from the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh advocacy group, which has been lobbying and litigating these issues for more than a decade, was not enthusiastic.

“We welcome all assistance in addressing the very real concerns of bias and discrimination endured by Sikhs in the US,” said Sapreet Kaur, executive director of the coalition. “However, we feel that that Sikhs face much bigger issues in India. We hope that the Akal Takht will focus its resources on addressing urgent issues in India, including the lack of justice for crimes against Sikhs, (such as) murder, torture, and disappearances at the hands of Indian state agents, as well as apostasy, substance abuse, and farmer suicides.”

Daljit Singh Sawhney, head of the Sikh Gurdwara DC, who recently asked for representation of the American panth at the Akal Takhat, expressed concern about the committee’s priorities.

“The biggest problem we are facing (here) is that we are losing our youth and young generation,” he said. “The committee’s job should be how to keep them together and motivate them and learn from them… That is the biggest problem Sikhs are facing in the US.”

The jathedaar listed the following names of committee members for SikhNN: Mohinder Singh Kalsi, former president of the Sikh Foundation of Syracuse, New York; Satpal Singh of Buffalo, New York, chairman of the World Sikh Council – America Region; Mohinder Singh Taneja of Westbury, New York; Inderpal Singh Dhall, president of Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center in Plainview, New York; Harbans Singh Dhillon of Richmond Hill, New York; Gurnam Singh Pamma of Live Oak, California; and Satpal Singh Khalsa of New Mexico.

All except Gurnam Singh were members of the original Rochester committee.

Having a committee in the US is a way for the American panth to voice their grievances to accessible representatives of the Akal Takhat, Parminder Singh said. “For me, I welcome this committee.”

But not everyone is convinced that it is a representative body.

“How can they represent me, …we have to be part of the process of electing them,” Daljit Singh said. He agreed with the idea of the committee but would have preferred a process of vetting candidates from around the country, nominating members and having a national vote. And he would have preferred at least one member under 50-years-old, and one who was a woman, he said.

Daljit Singh also questioned Satpal Singh Khalsa’s appointment to the committee. He is the late Yogi Harbhajan Singh Khalsa’s son-in-law and also a representative of his dharma, which is considered a cult by at least two US experts.

By definition, a cult is a group of people with heretically different and schismatic beliefs from those of an established group, often with extreme devotion to its founders, and lives outside of conventional society, usually under the direction of a charismatic leader.

Yogi Bhajan’s dharma was founded in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, and has many practices rejected by Sikhs, which include following another guru, Yogi Bhajan, practicing white-tantric, kundalini and other yoga, establishing a different rehit maryada, forming a ministry and engaging in ritualism.

Yogi Bhajan “…created a new culture of Sikhi as founded by Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs,” his Web site, 3HOhistory.com, says.

Guru Terath Singh Khalsa, his lawyer and spokesman, told Time Magazine in 1977 that Yogi Bhajan was "the equivalent of the Pope." According to the article, “The kind of Sikhism preached by Bhajan… is far different from that practiced by 10 million Indians.”

His organization, 3HO (Happy, Holy, Healthy Organization) and Sikh Dharma, appear on a list of cults identified by the Cult Awareness and Information Center.

Cult expert Rick A. Ross called Yogi Bhajan an "absolute authoritarian figure,” in a 2004 obituary written in the New York Times.

“Members of Yogi Bhajan's group claim to be Sikhs. However, according to mainstream members of the religion, by adhering to the doctrine of Yogi Bhajan, they are violating more traditional Sikh teachings,” wrote cult expert, Steven Hassan, on his Huffington Post blog. “Yogi Bhajan's teachings are closer to a synthesis of Kundalini yoga, tantric and New Age practices than anything originating from Sikh teachings.”

The jathedaar told SikhNN that he chose Satpal Singh Khalsa as head of the committee because he had done great work in representing the Akal Takhat. He travels around the US and India, he is very educated and understands everything. “He can do this work,” Gurbachan Singh said.

“I support him 100 percent,” Parminder Singh added. “Being his (Yogi Bhajan’s) son-in-law, sometimes you can be related to a person but have your own thinking.”

Satpal Singh Khalsa also serves as Ambassador of Sikh Dharma. His image appears alongside that of Yogi Bhajan on his Web site.

“Sikhs associate with them but will not be part of them,” Daljit Singh said of the dharma. “I would have picked someone different,” he said of Satpal Singh Khalsa.

The new committee is expected to establish its headquarters near the dharma’s center in Espanola or near the Guru Ram Das Ashram in Los Angeles, which the three Sikh dignitaries visited for a special divaan during their tour.

But that wasn’t their only controversial stop for the VIPs.

The jathedaar said they had come to the US on special invitation from Sant Baba Balwinder Singh Kurali of Delhi, California, a disciple of the late Baba Nand Singh, founder of the Nanaksar dharma.

Nanaksar also has many practices rejected by Sikhs, which include following living gurus, reciting kachee baanee, establishing a different rehit maryada, relinquishing langar, engaging in lunar rituals, exercising asceticism and practicing celibacy. As with the Yogi Bhajan dharma, Nanaksar can also be defined as a cult.

According to a Sept. 3 news release by Satpal Singh Khalsa, after visiting New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Yuba City, the VIPs ended their tour on Sept. 1 following a special visit with the sant baba at Gurdwara Nanksar in Delhi, California, where they commemorated the death anniversary of Baba Nand Singh, founder of Nanaksar.

source:http://www.sikhnn.com/headlines/2632/akaal-takhat-forms-committee-represent-us-sikhs
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
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Will the committee register as an official lobby according to US law? Or is it more of a free-lance initiative?
 
Jan 6, 2005
3,450
3,762
Metro-Vancouver, B.C., Canada
They are all political "hacks" of the Jathedar! I see no future of the Jathedar's Committee; it will die a quiet death gradually, like all his other ventures!

The existing American Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee has been sidelined completely!
Instead of creating UNITY within the USA Sikhs, he has created more DIVISIONS by his selection and actions!

The Jathedar has shown no foresight. He has only paid homage to his Masters ( Badals): "DIVIDE & RULE"!
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Thanks.

Actually it is the World Sikh Council -American Region that represents the majority of US gurdwara committees, either by membership or by affiliation on specific issues and concerns. WSC is affiliated with the international body, World Sikh Council.
http://www.worldsikhcouncil.org/about/history.html

The American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee represents a smaller number mostly in California, and scattered elsewhere. They are not unlike the self-styled federations of UK sangats that frequently hold press conferences in the name of all UK Sikhs. Upon close scrutiny it becomes clear that they do not.

Divide and Rule would not go very far, because US sangats already divide along lines and according to groupings already identified in the membership proposed for this committee. Most of the dividing has already occurred.

My question was really asking about their political identity as lobbyists, in order to assess how effective they would be in addressing issues like hate crimes or school bullying with public authorities. Panthic politics and gurdwara squabbling are a different matter.
 
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