When my friend, income-tax advocate G.S.Lamba who doubles up as editor of Sikh community journal Sant Sipahi, went to meet topmost Sikh cleric Joginder Singh Vedanti, the jathedar of the Akal Takht, he complained about the state of affairs in the Sikh community’s religious and political affairs. Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal’s hegemony was all pervasive and even selection of top clerics, including Akal Takht jathedar (considered Pope of the Sikhs) were a matter of brash politics. “How long will all this continue?” Lamba asked. The Pope of the Sikhs was combing with his hand his flowing white beard.  “Sangharsh Karo (Launch a struggle),” Vedanti said. “Agwaiyee Karo! (Lead us)” Lamba was quick with his response. “Lah den ge (They will remove me),” Vedanti lamented. Much of Punjab’s religio-political domain is stuck in this paradigm. Religion has often inspired lies.  

During his gubernatorial campaign in Louisiana, lawyer-turned-politician Huey Long was advised to play to the Roman Catholicism of many of the voters. Accordingly, he opened his first speech with the following words: “When I was a boy, I would get up at six o'clock in the morning on Sunday, and I would hitch our old horse up to the buggy and I would take my Catholic grandparents to mass. I would bring them home, and at ten o'clock I would hitch the old horse up again, and I would take my Baptist grandparents to church." "Why, Huey," the advisor later remarked, "you've been holding out on us. I didn't know you had any Catholic grandparents." "Don't be a damn fool," Long replied. "We didn't even have a horse!"

Much the same is the religio-political scene in Punjab as these archives will bring out.

Return to the word, the swords can wait
November 16, 2006
To dismiss Sardar Simranjit Singh Mann's and his supporters' clash with the armed men of the SGPC's task force as a scuffle over...

His last wish: a visit to Golden Temple
February 5, 2004
In 1972, a 65-year-old Isher Singh of Peshawar came to Nankana Sahib – the only place he had heard of where he could hope for some protection after suffering...

Polling In Badal Fiefdom: Mirroring A Rear View 
November 23, 2005
When it comes to panthic affairs, political sagacity is second nature to Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal and Wednesday's events at the SGPC...

400th Prakash Utsav of Sri Guru Granth Sahib
August 29, 2004
People of the Ahle-e-Kitab is how Sikhs are often referred to. Followers of one of the youngest religions in the world are united by their scriptures. But as the..

Kala Afghana's Upcoming Anti-Vedanti Book Pre-Empted By Ban
April 7, 2004
“If the ‘katha’ of this Granth can be re-introduced in the Gurdwaras, we will think that our labour has been well rewarded.” -- Akal Takht...

Ex-cop's Writings Trigger Off Academic Duel On Hukumnama Issue 
January 7, 2004
Writings of a dismissed police officer, who immigrated to Canada after Operation Bluestar and has through his books provoked Akal Takht jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti to summon him, have now split...

Bitter Amarinder-Badal polity leads to competitive rediscovery of Longowal 
August 20, 2003
Real politics mothers many strange proclivities, and 17 years after his brutal assassination, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal's memory turned out to be still potent...

Badal Gives Benign Face To Hegemony, But Amarinder May Not Wince
July 16, 2003
If hegemony has a benign face, it was on display at the Akali Dal’s unity conclave today where party president Parkash Singh Badal, currently reeling under...

Politics by proxy -- Punjab politicos clash over Sikh citadel SGPC
November 2002
For a body whose birth was marked with extreme religious fervour, and which was seen by the martial Sikh community as a product of quasi-religio-political...

Nurmahal's Controversial Dera Throws Some LightOn Its Activities; It’s Somewhere Between Your Eyebrow
August 13, 2002
Nurmahal, the centre of activities of controversial Godman Ashutosh, literally means ‘Palace of Light’. And very aptly these days. At Ashutosh's huge...

Badal-Dominated SGPC Gives Sikhs Nanakshahi Calender, But Politics Underlines The Development 
April 26, 2002
More than five hundred years after Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion, its followers felt the desperate need to stress their own distinct identity by...

Nanakshahi Calender Is Badalshahi Way Of Politics 
April 16, 2002
When a clever politician is down on the political turf, the cleverest stratagem he can employ is to change the turf, and by releasing the Nanakshahi calender...

Discrimination issue is wider than women-in-sewa controversy
March 10, 2002
* As per the Sikh Rehat Maryada, if a Sikh regularly performing the baptising ceremony meets with an accident and loses the use of one foot, physical tragedy apart, he is rendered ineligible...

Caste Retains Its Grip As Guru’s Word Burns Across Punjab 
October 18, 2001
Worthless is caste and worthless an exalted name, For all mankind there is but a single refuge. (Guru Nanak, Adi Granth p 83)...

Why Are Scriptures Burning In The Land Of The Gurus?
October, 2001
The Adi Granth is like the holy water of the Ganga. Everybody man or woman, rich and poor, high and low, Brahman or Shudra, white and black people can have a dip without any restriction...

Gurdwara Bill:  Wise Men Join Heads SGPC's Handpicked Panel Starts Agreeing,Yet Road head Full Of Blocks
June 30, 2001
For the first time today since the All India Sikh Gurdwara Bill draft courted controversy two years back, Sikh scholars handpicked by SGPC to resolve...

When The Swayamsevaks Came Marching In
December 20, 2000
They've always had an uneasy relationship, but now, their animosity is out in the open, fangs and all. The loudest buzz in the Sikh clergy and community is around the recent campaigning by the RSS in Punjab...

Super-speciality Patna  jathedar offers mumbo-jumbo treatment for diabetes, dizziness, headache, tension, depression, insomnia, impotency
December 10, 2000
This, finally, is The Book. Written by one of Sikhism’s top five clerics, it promises to be a panacea for all ills, physical or psychological. The cleric has turned a therapist, and his book expounds a therapy...

Puppy Love Dead, May Also Claim A Political Career 
October 14, 2000
My dear Kamal, sweet sweet kiss full of great love on your sweet lips. Kamal I love you and cannot live without you…I love my Tinku which is my every desire, every dream and I will come to you as soon as possible...

SGPC goes tortoise in nine months, hare in last three
September 9, 2000
Cash-rich SGPC, the premier forum administering hundreds of Sikh gurdwaras, manages its money running into crores in a rather peculiar way: For the first...

LOGIC SGPC STYLE
September, 2000
A devout bows before the holy Guru Granth Sahib, kneels, and before saying his little prayer within, humbly places his little offering in the locked ‘golak’ often...

SGPC book says Bhagat Singh no martyr, Master Tara Singh’s grand daughter kicks storm
August, 2000
Controversy over alleged interpolations in Sachi Sakhi, a best-seller in the relio-political Punjabi literature domain, has taken a new turn with SGPC member Kiranjot Kaur, a close kin of late Master Tara Singh...

Ostracised By The Guru 350 Years Earlier, Now A Sect Wants To Return To Mainfold 
July 9, 2000
“thou shall not have any social relation with dhirmalias… as such ties render a Sikh as tankhahyia.”  -- Words uttered at the baptising ceremony of every...

Former Akal Takht heads welcome stance, many react
July 9, 2000
Former Akal Takht jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh today welcomed the statement of dhirmal sect head Karamjit Singh expressing faith in Guru Granth Sahib but said any decision about taking them back into the panth has...