A Rs. 2,430 Crore Nail in the Coffin

By Karminder Singh Dhillon | The Sikh Bulletin |

On October 21st, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of two new ropeway projects connecting Gobind Ghaat to Hemkund and Gaurikund to Kedarnath in Uttarakhand. The projects will come up at a cost of Rs 2,430 crore.

The length of the ropeway connecting Gobind Ghat to Hemkund Sahib will be 12.4 km. Stations will be constructed at Gurdwara Gobind Ghat, Pind Pullana, Gurdwara Gobind Dham and Hemkund. The aim of this ropeway is to reduce the travel time from Gobind Ghaat to Hemkund from one day of walking to 45 minutes.

Given the history of the relationship between the Indian regime and Sikhs, a host of questions arise. Six can be listed here.

First, what is the motive of this seemingly magnanimous nature of the regime’s support for Hemkund? After all, the 2,430 crore will be used for a project that bears a direct link to the Sikh religion – more so the hijacked version of it.

Second, given that yatras, penances, frivolous worship of mythological places and past lives are rejected within Gurmat and Gurbani, why is the Indian regime so altruistic in allocating crores to a private institution – Hemkund – that epitomizes all four?

Third, why hasn’t the Indian regime allocated money to improve the infrastructure around other primary Sikh gurdwaras such as the roads and drainage around Darbar Sahib or Sis Ganj to facilitate visits of Sikhs therein?

Fourth, isn’t this project aimed at promoting the narratives within the Bachitar Natak or Dasam Granth pertaining to Guru Gobind Singh having meditated on Kalika the Mahakaal in his past life? After all, Hemkund is founded on this particular but concocted narrative – whose acceptance within the Sikh world depends heavily on its active pushing through government interference.

Fifth, is this project a fitting sequel to the Rs 100 Crores that were allocated by the Indian regime in 1999 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the formation of the Khalsa wherein the dual motives were firstly, to portray Guru Gobind Singh as an IndianHindu national hero and secondly, to aggressively promote the Dasam Granth as a Sikh scripture? Is it also a sequel to the announcement by PM Modi in 2021 that the final week of December would be celebrated as the Sahibzadey Shaheedi week as part of the “baal divas” – the motive of which was provide a solution to the problem the BJP and RSS had with the 25th of December being declared a Christmas holiday? Readers will recall that immediately upon coming to power in 2014, the BJP regime had announced that the 25th of December would be a working day but was forced to backtrack after stiff opposition. They have been looking for a way out ever since; albeit diabolically – to grant a holiday on or around December 25th while simultaneously denying the Christian community a Christmas holiday. The BJP regime found one in 2021 – at the expense of the Sahibzade who were being honored for having sacrificed their lives as defenders of the Snatan dharma.

Finally, is this yet another attempt at eroding, absorbing, assimilating, co-opting and subjugating Sikhi, Sikh Gurus, and Sikhs in the long list of attempts that have gone on for as long as one can remember? Is this another attempt at diluting and eventually destroying the nirmlta or uniqueness of Sikhi?

In other words, is this project a Rs. 2,430 crores worth of a nail in the coffin of Sikh independence and Sikhi uniqueness?

One would expect Sikh institutions, organizations, universities and thinkers to see through the Rs 2,340 crore façade and rush to alert, inform and educate the Sikh community as to what it really amounts to. At the very least they could ask any or all of the six questions above – or more – and initiate a vigorous debate within the Sikh world. If that is still not possible, at least they would ask the community to ponder over the huge sum that has suddenly fallen from the Himalayan skies onto the Sikh lap.

But what the Sikh world got was a display of spineless-ness par excellence in the form of a stampede by Sikh groups to bootlick Modi. Hemkund Management Trust vice-president Narinderjit Singh Bindra led the race in servility by praising the project sky high. Not very far behind was the sycophant Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney who said the project was a Diwali gift to the Sikhs and “should be completed on war footing”. Not wanting to be left behind in toadying, Delhi DSGMC chief Harmeet Singh Kalka stated, “The DSGMC is extremely grateful to PM Modi for laying the foundation stone of the ropeway project between Govindghat and Hemkund Sahib.” Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Baljit Singh Dadduwal in a letter to the PM praise Modi’s “continued kindness in making it easier for Sikhs to pay obeisance at Sri Hemkund Sahib.” Tarlochan Singh, chairman of the minorities commission said “Sikhs will never forget the welfare measures for Sikhs undertaken by the PM.” Former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur “welcomed Modi’s inauguration of the ropeway to Hemkund sahib”. There were too many other groups and institutions who bent over backwards to tell the Sikh world that Modi and his regime were the great miracle that Sikhs had been waiting for. Too many to waste valuable space in the pages of this publication.

Yet, the most disgraceful pandering to this USD 150 million Anti-Sikhi Agenda was left to be undertaken by none other than the Akaal Takhat.

This editorial may not have come about if the AT had stayed out of the nauseating bootlicking. After all, the Sikh world has become fairly immune to seeing our gullible organizations being duped by the anti-Sikh forces either through their own ignorance or through wanting a piece of the crumbs that are thrown at the Sikh world by these forces.

The Jathedar of AT, Gyani Harpreet Singh wrote an official note to Modi one day after the PM had laid the foundation stone of the ropeway project. The note reads – in part – as follows. “I congratulate you for laying the foundation stone of the Gurdwara Hemkund Ropeway. For any devout Sikh, this is a historic occasion and will further bring together the pilgrims with their sacred places. You have shown great sensitivity and respect towards the Sikh traditions and the teachings of the Guru Sahib’s”. Disregarding the grammatical errors, this letter leaves little doubt that servility, sycophancy and adulation for the anti-Sikh promoters has reached its highest levels and lowest ebbs. This message scrapes the bottom of the barrel of sucking up.

The one good that may have hopefully come out of this shameful episode is the need to understand, and the opportunity to explain what Hemkund is really about. This issue of The Sikh Bulletin thus contains my essay titled “The Truth of Hemkund” which can be read on page 10. It is hoped that readers will be able to put this Rs. 2,430 crore Indian government ropeway project into the perspective it deserves.

Sikh thinker, writer and parcharak Karminder Singh Dhillon, PhD (Boston), is a retired Malaysian civil servant. He is the joint-editor of The Sikh Bulletin and author of The Hijacking of Sikhi. This article appeared as the editorial of the The Sikh Bulletin – Vol 24 No 4 (October – December 2022). Click here to retrieve archived copies of the bulletin. The author can be contacted at dhillon99@gmail.com. 

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