Patna sanggat showed away for Indian president visit, reports WSN

In a de­vel­op­ment that has sent shock­waves through­out the Sikh com­mu­nity, the Sikh San­gat of Patna has ur­gently ap­pealed to the high­est re­li­gious au­thor­ity, Jathedar Gi­ani Ragh­bir Singh Ji of the Akal Takht Sahib, seek­ing im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion over the fla­grant vi­o­la­tion of Maryada – the Sikh Code of Con­duct – at Takht Sri Ha­ri­mandir Ji, Patna Sahib, dur­ing the re­cent visit of the In­dian Pres­i­dent Droupadi Murmu there. World Sikh News (WSN) ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh re­ports on the ba­sis of pho­to­graphic and video ev­i­dence and af­ter speak­ing to mem­bers of the San­gat who were pre­sent in the sanc­tum sanc­to­rum and the San­gat which con­vened a meet­ing a day af­ter the visit of the In­dian Pres­i­dent.

By Jag­mo­han Singh | World Sikh News |

LOOK AT THE MAIN PIC­TURE CLOSELY. The Pres­i­dent of In­dia is in­side Dar­bar Sahib, Takht Patna Sahib. Ex­cept for her se­cu­rity para­pher­na­lia and the Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee team, there is not a sin­gle mem­ber of the Sikh San­gat.  There was no earth­quake in Patna or an­other calamity that there was no San­gat. The San­gat, ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion gath­ered by The World Sikh News, num­bered around 70-80 a ma­jor­ity of which were women.

In re­sponse to the se­cu­rity um­brella of the vis­it­ing dig­ni­tary, the Su­per­in­ten­dent of Takht Patna Sahib -Daljit Singh, act­ing high and mighty and us­ing strong words shooed away the San­gat from Dar­bar Sahib.  He was ob­vi­ously ex­e­cut­ing or­ders from the Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee, who were com­ply­ing with the ad­min­is­tra­tive de­mand for an empty area prior to the Pres­i­den­t’s visit.

In a move that demon­strated syco­phancy at its worst, the Takht Pra­band­hak Com­mit­tee fla­grantly dis­played their sub­servience to the ad­min­is­tra­tive and po­lit­i­cal sys­tem by hush­ing out the Sikh San­gat from Dar­bar Sahib, Takht Patna Sahib, grossly dis­rupt­ing the sanc­tity of the holy place.

Now have a close look at the photo above. In­dian Pres­i­dent Droupadi Mur­mao is sur­rounded by the mem­bers of the Takht Com­mit­tee, her se­cu­rity cover per­son­nel, and Se­wadars of the Takht Com­mit­tee on duty. There is not a sin­gle mem­ber of the San­gat in the Dar­bar Sahib.

WSN spoke to mem­bers of a fam­ily from Lud­hi­ana who were part of the San­gat in Patna and who were pushed out­side Dar­bar Sahib. The lady said, “I was to­tally dev­as­tated. This has never hap­pened any­where at any time. I join the San­gat in Patna seek­ing ex­em­plary pun­ish­ment for the Takht Com­mit­tee.”

Sur­prised and shocked, Gur­sha­ran­jit Singh, a for­mer Se­nior Man­ager of Pun­jab and Sind Bank, who was also vis­it­ing Takht Sahib, told WSN that there was a Sikh lady from Sin­ga­pore, who re­sisted the push­ing by Se­wadars led by Daljit Singh Su­per­in­ten­dent, and that she was vis­i­bly up­set and an­gry.

Manohar Singh Bagga, a se­nior leader of the Sikh com­mu­nity from Patna, un­der whose lead­er­ship the meet­ing of the San­gat was held, vo­cif­er­ously ar­tic­u­lated the an­guish of the com­mu­nity, “In the long his­tory of our sa­cred in­sti­tu­tions, no dig­ni­tary’s visit, no mat­ter how es­teemed, has ever su­per­seded the sa­cred­ness of our tra­di­tions. This bla­tant de­vi­a­tion is not only un­prece­dented but deeply hurt­ful.”

The San­gat pre­sent in­side the Takht Sahib en­grossed in the Gur­bani Kir­tan, were forcibly evac­u­ated to fa­cil­i­tate the Pres­i­den­t’s visit. Iqbal Singh Lucky Bagga, an­other in­flu­en­tial voice within the com­mu­nity, lamented, “The Gur­bani lis­ten­ers were dis­placed. This has never hap­pened be­fore, not even when other high-pro­file dig­ni­taries vis­ited.”

Iqbal Singh Lucky BaggaIqbal Singh Lucky Bagga also pointed out the ha­rass­ment to the San­gat who were locked in­side their rooms and could not go to the Rail­way sta­tion for de­par­ture from Patna. He fur­ther ap­prised that school­child­ren re­turn­ing home were also pre­vented from en­ter­ing the Takht premises.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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