ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

'But for Monica, jathedar would be in US now'

Arthur J Pais in New York

Die-hard supporters of the controversial Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh say had American President Bill Clinton's sexcapades not been on the minds of several pro-Khalistan Republican congressmen such as Dan Burton, the Akal Takt chief would have been in the US today.

Despite the alleged pressure from US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was reportedly worried that the jathedar's visit could lead to violent confrontations, Sikh activists in New York believe they could have prevailed.

A week after the state department refused visa to the jathedar, Sikhs in America and Canada are vowing to bring him to America.

Moderate Sikhs in British Columbia, however, are relieved at the state department's action. They believe Ranjit Singh's visit would have further escalated the tension between moderate and hardliner Sikhs that has claimed several lives and led to fracas in gurdwaras in Vancouver.

Jaspreet Singh, a New York-based lawyer and member of the reception committee for the jathedar, said this week that he might go to court to demand a visa waiver.

Singh was asked by a Canadian publication about the Fremont temple in California where the jathedar was to spend eight days. 'Doesn't the temple have a gallery of photos of 100 men including Indira Gandhi's assassins who are described as 'martyrs'? Doesn't the gallery include the picture of Talwinder Singh Parmar, blamed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the 1985 Air-India explosion that killed 329 people?'

"Such pictures hang in many temples across America and Canada,' Jaspreet Singh said. 'That does not mean the jathedar has to be subscribe to violence.'

Meanwhile, a follower of the jathedar told a Vancouver court that Ranjit Singh did not believe in violence.

Saudagar Singh Sandhu, one of the four accused in the January 11, 1997 tables-and-chairs fight at the Guru Nanak gurdwara in nearby Surrey, said he did not hit either moderate priest Balwant Singh Gill or his daughter.

On January 11, the temple's moderate executive tried to return tables and chairs to the dining hall after the old ones were smashed by fundamentalist supporters the month before.

Gill and several moderate leaders have been declared apostates by the jathedar. The moderates sent scores of telegrams and emails to officials in Canada, Washington and New Delhi protesting against the jathedar's visit.

"There was commotion and when there was pushing and shoving, I was hit by someone in my back and I fell down. Somebody was already down and I fell on him," the 35-year-old leader of the International Youth Federation said. If found guilty, he could go to jail for more than five years.

Gill believes the violence had little to do with furniture and everything with the control of the gurdwara, which has over 42,000 members.

He said prior to November 1996, the issue of tables and chairs in the dining hall had never come up, even when fundamentalists controlled the temple.

Earlier, Gill had identified his attacker as Saudager Singh Sandhu.

"He jumped on me from the back and hit me with something here," Gill alleged, gesturing to his upper back.

Being tried along with Sandhu are Piara Singh Panasar, who is also charged with attempted murder, and Manmohan Singh Lal, who is facing a weapons charge.

Gill also testified he saw Panasar, who is charged with stabbing a moderate, Parminder Singh Pannu, in the dining hall that day.

He described Panasar as a former member of the temple's executive committee and an activist of the International Sikh Youth Federation when the federation controlled the temple between 1985 and 1995.

Tell us what you think of this report