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USA All Amritdharis Banned From Rochester NY Gurdwara Sahib

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spnadmin

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This was forwarded to me by SPN member Tejwant Singh ji Malik, though I knew of this story yesterday from Gyani Jarnial Singh ji "Arshi" The story published in Punjabi in Rozanna Spokesman, has been translated by Kirpal Singh (USA).

I do hope that we can make sense of this development. It betrays logic and sense.


In the Rozana Spokesman of June 13
S. Tarlochan Singh Dupalpur of San Jose has reported as follows;

“In the Sikh circles this news will be read with a lot of sadness that in the city of Rochester located in the New York State, a local judge has clamped a ban on the entry of all Amritdhari Sikhs into the Gurdwara of Rochester. And the tragedy of the situation is that this ban has not been clamped upon the request of any non-Sikh Society or organization. Rather this ban has been gotten clamped by the present day Clean Shaven Organizers of this Gurdwara.

** Update Video Discussion on This Topic Between the Organizers of Rochester, NY Radio Talk Show 2 of : Login | Facebook

Bhai Simranjit Singh and Bhai Ajit Singh related to this Gurdwara has reported that in the month of February this year, the present day Gurdwara Organizers very silently and secretly; by presenting the Gurdwara as a Private Chruch in legal papers, had gotten it declared as a private property. And then in reaction to the Sangat’s anger to such a surprise move, the Organizers filed a case in the local court complaining that” the Sikh with Turbans and Kirpans are bothering us.”

According to the Sikh congregates, it were Santokh Badesha, Bhupinder Mehta, and Maghar Channa, the three Clean Shaven Trustees who have submitted their affidavits in the court stating that for a Sikh there is no requirement to be a Sabat Soorat or to be an Amritdhari. All that one need is the internal Sikhi.

The Trustee by the name of Harbhajan Purewal has also submitted a similar affidavit. The Organizers of this Gurdwara are intentionally distorting the Sikhs traditions and practices. Furthermore, Badesha, who personally never wears a turban, always makes fun of the Sikh principles even in his normal general talk. According to Bhai Ajit Singh, Badesha always describes the Turbaned Sikhs as dwarf minded.

It should be remembered that it is the same Gurdwara, where after a conspiratorial distortion of Prof Darshan Singh’s CD a complaint was sent against him to Akal Takhat.

The local Sikh Sangat of this Gurdwara has appealed to the entire Sikh World to help them out in this dire situation, in order to put a stop to the out-of-control activities of the present day organizers. …. (Translated from the Original Punjabi News attached herewith)

To read the Actual PUNJABI News & to see the Photographs please

CLICK on the following link;

http://rozanaspokes man.com/fullpage .aspx?view= main&yview=2010&mview=Jun&<wbr>dview=13&pview=3
 

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spnadmin

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Original Punjabi version, Rozanna Spokesman, June 13,2010
 

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japjisahib04

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I hope an appeal has been filed before the High Court while giving reference to the Punjab High Court verdict two years before defining who the sikhs are and also criminal action is filed against these clean shaven distgruntled criminal bringing shame to sikh community.
Best regards
 

spnadmin

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Mohinder ji

Shame will need to serve a higher purpose for the time at hand. The event occurred in the state of New York where laws that govern the chartering of gurdwaras versus churches. It seems that the laws are different for gurdwaras. Which may explain why the trustees behaved in secret.

Actually I am finally understanding this myself. A gurdwara by definition is open to all -- no exclusion by caste, creed, religion, gender and etc. But a church can have its own articles of incorporation and decide for itself who belongs and who does not. Basically the trustees were able to avoid a public proceeding. That is how they got away with this. And why they did it in secret.

Overall the courts will apply laws pertain to articles of incorporation and financing. The courts will not extend to issues of membership, faith or dogma. A fair amount of research needs to be done on how they got away with this, and I hope that amritdharis are doing it. If the trustees followed the law there may be nothing that can be done as the separation of church and state is according to exact lines. No court will hear a case about what what is a "church" or who the "church" believers are or how they should practice their religion. Very different from India, Kuwait, or most other countries. The lawyers will have to get these crafty individuals on the grounds of business conspiracy or defrauding the court in a civil matter, and that is a question mark.

I have posted this on facebook so that the great spider web of personal connections there can at least know this happened. Please everyone else make this information public so that the people who are pleading for your support will at least feel their brothers and sisters are standing beside them.

On another note: Rozanna Spokesman -- according to some the big bad wolf of heresy and its "nefarious" editor now nder indictment in India for "hurting the religious sentiments of SGPC" and "black deeds" --- broke this story. How nefarious and how black ? -- my question.
 
Sep 27, 2008
142
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SSA,
For goodness sake are these people for real ?, how can they make such ludricous claims about turban wearing sikhs. In my opinion it does not even sound or look sikhi having all clean shaven people in the Gurdwara. I personaly think there is more to this than we know, its like they are starting a new way to portray the real sikhs to look bad. I feel sad after reading this.
 

satnamsatnam

SPNer
Jun 15, 2010
5
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[Please not name of gurdwara is " Gurdwara of Rochester" and not not Richmond park Gurdwara.


and this is true, amritdhari sikhs are not able to go to gurdwara and there is no other gurdwara in rochester.
 

skulbir

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Jun 14, 2010
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Mohali
This is really sad what is happening at rochester. Why not SGPC and Akal-Takht Jatehdar take stringent actions against these persons.
But unfortunately, these institutes are unable to lead Sikh-Panth.
The only solution now is to create awareness among people/masses about these nefarious activties.

Kulbir
 

spnadmin

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This is not a gurudwara. I'm not sure what it is, but it's not a gurudwara.


Well you are right, Mai Ji. It is not a gurdwara anymore. Because under the cloak of secrecy the managing trustees/directors went to a judge and changed the status from gurdwara to church. So now what kind of church do we have here. welcomekaurwelcomekaurwelcomekaur What they end up with basically is a social club.

The question I have is how does one offer prasaad without panj pyaare? Maybe it is possible. Perhaps someone can tell me.
 

Mai Harinder Kaur

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The question I have is how does one offer prasaad without panj pyaare? Maybe it is possible. Perhaps someone can tell me.

The only way it would be possible that I can think of is to ditch the SRM and write their own Maryada. In which case, they might be considered some sort of breakaway cult to be dealt with as such.

Aside: Please! I am not necessarily disrespecting other Maryadas of long-standing, such as the Gurmat Rehat Maryada or those followed by some Nihungs. I am referring to this specific group.
 

RajaOfNY

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Dec 31, 2007
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why cant United Sikhs or Sikh Coalition do anything about it? Can anyone reach out to these guys please?
 

Tejwant Singh

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From the offset, I would like to clarify that I am not being a cynic when I say that this is a very positive thing that has taken place where the trickery of some who call themselves Sikhs have forbidden Amritdhari Sikhs to enter the Rochester Gurdwara with the help of some legal maneuvering.

This is the same Gurdwara from where the doctored tape of Prof. Darshan Singh's katha was sent to the Akaal Takhat which declared him an outcast of Sikhi, one more anti Gurmat step taken by the honchos stooping to their lowest level in Amritsar, sifti da ghar, which means, " Amritsar- the house of goodness via Gurmat.

This episode has sowed the seeds of change and I hope we Sikhs have enough courage,dedication and devotion to let them germinate into trees that can bear Gurmat fruits.

Following are just the few points. I would urge all of you to add your own to them.

1. Modification in SRM with the input of the Sangat from all over the world.

2. A centralised foundation concept for all the Gurdwaras anywhere in the world with their own independence solely based on the Gurmat ideals given to us in the SGGS, our only Guru.

3. As we can all have our individual Gurdwaras at our private homes, there should be uniform rules and regulations to set up the Gurdwaras for the public where no one is banned or left out. This concept should be based on the four doors of Darbar Sahib.

Come on my Sikhs sisters and brothers! It is time to take our spiritual shovels out and start making the changes that are needed and necessary and no better forum than this one to start digging within.

Sikhi demands this from us.

Tejwant Singh
 

Astroboy

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Well these steps are going to lead to more sects in the Sikh religion. Think about all the Sehajdharis having difference in opinions on how things should be conducted. Reinventing a wheel will amount to blood shed amongst the Sehajdharis. We don't want that for them. Instead we want them to have chardi kala, naam, bani and nimarta. We want them to work their way back to the high spirited Khalsahood.
 

spnadmin

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namjap ji

I do believe you have drilled to the very core of the psychology of this strange drama.

Gursikh Jeevan I answered your question about the address of the gurdwara but it seems to be missing. I will investigate - or you can get it from the web site of SikhiWiki and search for US gurdwaras. Look for the New YOrk State list.
 

spnadmin

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Respected forum members, There have been some developments in this story.

To begin: SPN forum member gursikhi_jeevan ji was able to contact a member of the Rochester sangat who is an amritdhari Sikh. He learned in conversation that the Rochester NY Gurdwara had published a rebuttal on June 17/18, to the story we have been following, in Sher e Punjab. Sher e Punjab is a Punjabi language newspaper with wide circulation in North America.

Aman Singh ji and Gyani Jarnail Singh read through several editions of the online version of Sher e Punjab and eventually located the rebuttal.

The story unfolds: It may not be exactly the case that all amritdharis were banned, but that some amritdharis were banned because of a dispute over control of gurdwara management. This is what Sher e Punjab reported in sum.

It seems the Gurdwara was begun as a "family" run institution by 10-12 families who pooled their resources in 1986. Management was by volunteers at the outset. Each year nominations were taken for management posts; but these were nearly always rejected by the nominees because people tended to be very busy. It was difficult to fill all the committee positions.

In time as more people settled in the area, and joined the sangat, they agitated for elections. The people who agitated were the ones who lost the Court case. Why? The judge decided that this particular Gurdwara was operated under provisions of "Article 9" making it a nonprofit religious institution. As a nonprofit religious institution, there was no requirement for any elections. Committee memberships are legally permanent and do not change.

There is an court injunction against those individuals who lost the case entering the Gurdwara.

Kirpans are also banned only if the person wearing a kirpan has the intent to cause a disturbance.

We will keep you informed as more information develops.
 
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