http://www.sikhchic.com/article-detail.php?id=1951&cat=12
Nikki Haley: Feeding Lions to the Christians
by T. SHER SINGH
Sikh-born Nikki Haley - daughter of Sikh parents from Amritsar - has been elected Republican Governor of South Carolina, U.S.A.
Before you take umbrage with the reporting of this piece of news on the sikhchic.com front-page this morning, or my referring to her as "Sikh-born", I ask for your patience and a few moments of reflection on what I have to say.
I have been meaning to write this piece earlier, but did not want it to be used against her in her election-bid, because a) I do not have many nice things to say about her; 2) pieces posted online tend to get viral with lightening speed; and 3) many of her opponents and supporters are religious and racial bigots and have been grasping at any straw to get ammunition against her, in order to further warp similar minds that surround them.
I met Nikki not too long ago in Toronto. She had come with her parents to Toronto where she was being honoured at the annual Vaisakhi gala of The Centennial Foundation.
I spent much of the evening talking to the three of them at our table.
Here's what I garnered from the evening:
- Nikki was very proud of being a Sikh and publicly said so.
- It was also obvious that she was not a practising Sikh.
- She was a politician, first and foremost - and I do not use the word as a compliment - and had indeed come a long way on a very rough journey requiring many compromises.
- She was married to a Christian and her children were being brought up as Christians.
- She was cognizant of the narrow-mindedness of the Christian South and had become very adept at stepping over their egg-shells.
- She was very ambitious, and was not willing to be tripped by lesser minds on her rise to the top.
- She was capable of making any and all compromises to reach her goals.
I concluded from my brief meeting with her that she was a politician to the core. Let me explain what I mean.
I believe that our system of democracy - deeply flawed, but sadly the best we have today - simply does not allow high principles to flourish in its halls of powers.
Which means that any person with high principles - genuinely, not just paying lip-service - simply cannot get very far in the political arena.
Which means, I believe, that politics today - in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world - simply has no room for high-principled people in its corridors.
Which means, I believe, that there are NO high-principled people in politics today.
Barack Obama is walking proof of this. Although I continue to support him all the way, I have seen his principles unravel from the very day he became President - starting with the criminal pay-out of almost a trillion dollars (I don't really know how much that is, I must confess) to a handful of thoroughly corrupt people, all the way to his most recent cowardly response to a planned visit to the Darbar Sahib.
Sadly, he's the best we have today.
And Nikki Haley doesn't even come close.
She has indeed sold her soul to win this Governorship. I know her distancing herself from her Sikh roots was a mere ploy to placate her bigoted detractors and that she doesn't really believe it. A lie of this magnitude is bound to destroy all the integrity one has within oneself.
But that has never been a danger with politicians - we require them to leave their integrity at home, once they start on their political journeys.
Nikki's has been a double lie.
But I lay only part of the blame at her door.
The rest of it is at the door of Southern Christianity and the South's warped brand of democracy which demand their politicians to be weaklings and unprincipled, and prove their qualifications to the world by publicly declaring allegiance to their brand of Christianity.
An abomination, I tell you, which would drive Jesus Christ to tears. And each of the founding fathers of the United States of America to spin in their graves.
True, Nikki has failed us - and herself.
And so has America!
Our work as Sikhs - saint-soldiers - is cut-out for us.
Instead of turning our guns at poor, weak, unprincipled Nikki - or our backs to her - we should concentrate on fighting this racial and religious bigotry that plagues America as pervasively as it does Hindu India, Muslim Pakistan, or the Jewish-Muslim Middle-East.
There is nothing to rejoice for us in Nikki's election victory.
There is nothing to rejoice for Americans or Republicans or South Carolinians or Southern Christians either, in Nikki's election victory.
All it has done is expose the ugly under-belly of America.
And how much we Sikhs have neglected the upbringing of our own children - how we have failed them at home.
November 3, 2010
Nikki Haley: Feeding Lions to the Christians
by T. SHER SINGH
Sikh-born Nikki Haley - daughter of Sikh parents from Amritsar - has been elected Republican Governor of South Carolina, U.S.A.
Before you take umbrage with the reporting of this piece of news on the sikhchic.com front-page this morning, or my referring to her as "Sikh-born", I ask for your patience and a few moments of reflection on what I have to say.
I have been meaning to write this piece earlier, but did not want it to be used against her in her election-bid, because a) I do not have many nice things to say about her; 2) pieces posted online tend to get viral with lightening speed; and 3) many of her opponents and supporters are religious and racial bigots and have been grasping at any straw to get ammunition against her, in order to further warp similar minds that surround them.
I met Nikki not too long ago in Toronto. She had come with her parents to Toronto where she was being honoured at the annual Vaisakhi gala of The Centennial Foundation.
I spent much of the evening talking to the three of them at our table.
Here's what I garnered from the evening:
- Nikki was very proud of being a Sikh and publicly said so.
- It was also obvious that she was not a practising Sikh.
- She was a politician, first and foremost - and I do not use the word as a compliment - and had indeed come a long way on a very rough journey requiring many compromises.
- She was married to a Christian and her children were being brought up as Christians.
- She was cognizant of the narrow-mindedness of the Christian South and had become very adept at stepping over their egg-shells.
- She was very ambitious, and was not willing to be tripped by lesser minds on her rise to the top.
- She was capable of making any and all compromises to reach her goals.
I concluded from my brief meeting with her that she was a politician to the core. Let me explain what I mean.
I believe that our system of democracy - deeply flawed, but sadly the best we have today - simply does not allow high principles to flourish in its halls of powers.
Which means that any person with high principles - genuinely, not just paying lip-service - simply cannot get very far in the political arena.
Which means, I believe, that politics today - in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world - simply has no room for high-principled people in its corridors.
Which means, I believe, that there are NO high-principled people in politics today.
Barack Obama is walking proof of this. Although I continue to support him all the way, I have seen his principles unravel from the very day he became President - starting with the criminal pay-out of almost a trillion dollars (I don't really know how much that is, I must confess) to a handful of thoroughly corrupt people, all the way to his most recent cowardly response to a planned visit to the Darbar Sahib.
Sadly, he's the best we have today.
And Nikki Haley doesn't even come close.
She has indeed sold her soul to win this Governorship. I know her distancing herself from her Sikh roots was a mere ploy to placate her bigoted detractors and that she doesn't really believe it. A lie of this magnitude is bound to destroy all the integrity one has within oneself.
But that has never been a danger with politicians - we require them to leave their integrity at home, once they start on their political journeys.
Nikki's has been a double lie.
But I lay only part of the blame at her door.
The rest of it is at the door of Southern Christianity and the South's warped brand of democracy which demand their politicians to be weaklings and unprincipled, and prove their qualifications to the world by publicly declaring allegiance to their brand of Christianity.
An abomination, I tell you, which would drive Jesus Christ to tears. And each of the founding fathers of the United States of America to spin in their graves.
True, Nikki has failed us - and herself.
And so has America!
Our work as Sikhs - saint-soldiers - is cut-out for us.
Instead of turning our guns at poor, weak, unprincipled Nikki - or our backs to her - we should concentrate on fighting this racial and religious bigotry that plagues America as pervasively as it does Hindu India, Muslim Pakistan, or the Jewish-Muslim Middle-East.
There is nothing to rejoice for us in Nikki's election victory.
There is nothing to rejoice for Americans or Republicans or South Carolinians or Southern Christians either, in Nikki's election victory.
All it has done is expose the ugly under-belly of America.
And how much we Sikhs have neglected the upbringing of our own children - how we have failed them at home.
November 3, 2010
