Thursday, April 9, 2009

Hearing on Mr Jagdish Tytler postponed

Hearing on Mr Jagdish Tytler has been postponed and now it will be held on 28th April, 2009. He has been given a clean chit by CBI in the 1984 anti sikh riot case and a final hearing was due to be held today i.e. 9th April at Karkardooma court in East Delhi.

Congress may dump Tytler to secure Sikh votes

Congress may dump Tytler to secure Sikh votes
9 Apr 2009, 1024 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: The fate of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's nomination from Delhi North-East is hanging by a slender thread. With the "shoe throwing" protest by journalist Jarnail Singh triggering sharp reaction among Sikhs, Congress leadership is seriously considering to dump Tytler to secure its prospects in Punjab.

The resentment triggered by Jarnail's action swept Punjab as dozens of Sikh groups held up trains at several places in the state on Wednesday, fuelling the Tytler issue anew.

The protests, which came as a surprise to the Akali government in Punjab, sensitised the Congress leadership to the risk of persevering with Tytler, a former Union minister who is one of the prominent accused in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Congress is hopeful of improving its tally from Punjab, but fears that spotlight on Tytler may neutralise the advantage. Akalis have swiftly latched on to the controversy to remind Sikhs of the charge of official sponsorship of anti-Sikh violence in the aftermath of the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi.

Tytler's case comes up on Thursday before Rakesh Pandit, additional chief metropolitan magistrate of New Delhi who is to take a view on the CBI report which has disputed the veracity of the testimony of one Jasbir Singh who claimed to be a witness to Tytler's involvement in the rioting against Sikhs.

Congress sources, however, said Tytler may not be in the clear even if the court accepts the report of the investigating agency. "It is a matter of perception," said a party functionary familiar with leadership's thinking.

While Tytler was defiant and sought to rubbish reports about a re-think on his ticket, the leadership sounded out the party unit in Punjab on potential repercussions for party's chances in the state. "PPCC has already discussed and apprised party president Sonia Gandhi about the implications of Tytler issue on poll prospects in the state," Punjab Congress chief Mahinder Singh Kaypee told reporters.

Kaypee was not forthcoming on detials. But he did point to reports about party leadership's decision to review the decision to field Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, another prominent Congressman accused in the riots and party's candidate for South Delhi, when pressed by journalists in Chandigarh.

The protests in Punjab involved various Sikh outfits.Rail traffic remained disrupted for over four hours with activists of Damdami Taksal and other Sikh organizations led by Sant Samaj stopping trains and squatting on the tracks between 11am to 3pm. Several trains were stopped at various stations before the start of the dharna.

At the Dakoha railway crossing in Jalandhar, the protest was led by Damdami Taksal chief Harnam Singh Dhuma and SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar.

Long-distance trains, including the Flying Express from Amritsar to Darbhanga, were cancelled and others like Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi and Dadar-Amritsar Express delayed. However, many trains that left the Amritsar area before the demonstrators blocked the tracks chugged along on schedule. Reports from most places said cops made no attempt to disperse the protesters.

In Haryana too, Sikh community leaders held a symbolic dharna at the railway station in Kurukshetra.

with thanks : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cong-may-dump-Tytler-to-secure-Sikh-votes/articleshow/4374095.cms

Sikh grievance legitimate, says Chidambaram

with thanks : CNN-IBN

New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday admitted that the Sikh community had "legitimate grievances" on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in which just a few people have been convicted.


In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's Rajdeep Sardesai and Meetu Jain just a day after a Sikh journalist, Jarnail Singh, threw a shoe at him during a press conference in New Delhi, Chidambaram repeated what he told Jarnail on Tuesday that pronouncing guilt is for the courts to decide.


Chidambaram also said he has forgiven the Sikh journalist who works with Dainik Jagran.


"I don't think Jarnail intended to hurt me, only to provoke me," said Chidambaram.


"The Sikhs have a legitimate grievance that not enough people have been punished. But some people have been punished," he said.


He also tried to assure the Sikhs saying that the government was not trying to whitewash anything and the law would take its own course.


"Law has to take its course. Those who have been charge-sheeted… some will be punished, some may be acquitted because of technical reasons but to the best of my knowledge, no one in the government is trying to whitewash anything," said the Home Minister.


"I am not a judge. I am not a court. It is improper for me to pronounce anyone guilty or innocent," Chidambaram said.


The Home Minister said he was "100 per cent sure" there was no question of revamping his security in view of the shoe-throwing incident. "One PSO (police station officer) is one too many," he said.


He also declined to comment if the Congress would continue with Jagdish Tytler as its candidate for the Delhi North-East Lok Sabha seat.


"I cannot answer this question," he said.


He also added that he had forgotten the shoe-throwing incident.


"It was an emotional outburst by one journalist and he has quite rightly regretted it. As far as I am concerned, it is over," Chidambaram said about Singh.


Jarnail threw a shoe at Chidambaram at the Congress headquarters expressing his anger over the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) giving a clean chit to Tytler for the riots.

with thanks to :
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sikhs-have-a-legitimate-grievance-chidambaram/89791-37.html

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Shoe thrown at home minister P Chidambram by a sikh veteran journalist.

7.4.2009 / 1.30 PM

A sikh journalist hurled his shoe on Home minister P Chidambram during a press conference at New delhi. Jarnail singh the vetern journalist from Dainik Jagran asked the Minister about clean chit given to Mr. Jagdish Tytler.

Param jit singh sarna, president DSGMC has condemned the act of the sikh journalist in strong words.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Cong says Tytler case won’t hurt

HT Correspondent
New Delhi, April 04, 2009


A day after Jagdish Tytler, Congress candidate from Northeast Delhi Parliamentary seat got the clean chit from the CBI, leaders in the city unit of the Congress said they did not see this impacting the Lok Sabha elections adversely.

While some quarters said the Sikh were not a big enough vote bank in Delhi to swing the poll results, others said the protests against the CBI deposition were politically motivated.

“An autonomous body has given Tytler a clean chit. There have been no cases against him in court; only the Nanavati Commission had taken up the issue. We know the protests are politically manipulated. The BJP is our political opposition and everybody knows that they are instigating these protests,” said Jai Prakash Aggarwal, Delhi Congress chief.

Aggarwal felt the common Sikh voters did not harbour any ill will towards the party. Some leaders within the party, however, felt that the timing of the clean chit would create problems in Parliamentary seats that have pockets with Sikh majority or are BJP strongholds.

Delhi BJP leaders are already planning to make it a poll issue. “The very fact that Congress announced Jagdish Tytler’s candidature from North-East Delhi just a few weeks before the CBI verdict goes on to show that the Congress is hand-in-glove with the investigating agency. The verdict has hurt the sentiment of Sikh across the country. And we will condemn it in our campaign,” said OP Kohli, Delhi state BJP president.

VK Malhotra, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly said, “We just can’t keep silent on this issue. The timing of the CBI verdict is very questionable. It raises a number of question about CBI’s credibility.”

The Shiromani Akali Dal has also come out in the open condemning the Congress and the CBI verdict. “Rahul Gandhi, during his last trip to Punjab, had categorically said the Congress would not give tickets to the accused of 1984 riots. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also said on the floor of the House that people responsible for anti-sikh carnage would definitely be punished,” said Manjit Singh, Delhi president, SAD.

Protest by Sikhs

Protesting against the CBI giving a clean chit to the former Union minister Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-sikh riot case, six members of the Shiromani Gurugwara Prabandhak Committee tried to immolate themselves on Friday. The police detained all of them before they could immolate themselves.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) staged a chakka jam near Jail Road in west Delhi.

with thanks to :
www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=8fb56626-fd63-4913-985d-97286ed299f4&Headline=Cong+says+Tytler+case+won%e2%80%99t+hurt

A mouthful of venom

By Khushwant Singh ji,
Hindustan Times
April 03, 2009

There is something weird about Varun Gandhi’s fulminations against Muslims and Sikhs; it defies common sense. He used the abusive term saley for Muslims and according to The Indian Express report, used the racial slur bara bajey (noon time) for his Sikh opponent.
It was the language of the gutter for which he should not be forgiven. I refrained from commenting on the subject as at one time I had quite a lot to do with his mother Maneka Gandhi, her mother Amtesh — both Sikhs, like all their other relations. We had a bitter parting of ways and I thought it would not be fair on my part to say anything about Varun’s bad-mouthing other communities. I was sorely disappointed as on one occasion, when his mother invited me to the launch of his collection of poems, I forced myself to go. I read his poems, liked them and gave them a favourable write-up. I thought if this young man is into poetry, he will be above dirty politics. I was wrong.
When and why did anti-Muslim venom enter his mind? During his grandmother Indira Gandhi’s time, a permanent fixture in the home was a Muslim, Mohammed Yunus. Both his parents addressed him as “Chacha Yunus”. They were married in his house on Tughlak Road by Navin Chawla, now election commissioner. I never heard Sanjay or any other member of the Gandhi family use derogatory words for Muslims. The word bara bajey for a Sikh is even harder to understand. Didn’t he realise that it would not go down well with the Badals and their Akali colleagues who are allies of his own BJP? His utterance must have deeply embarrassed his leader LK Advani (who is an Amil believing in Sikhism), Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley. In short, Varun Gandhi has, as the saying goes, cooked his own goose. Has he gone off his rocker? He would be well-advised to undergo psychiatric treatment and confine himself to writing poetry.

with thanks :
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=94a7917a-6d5c-4ae4-879b-6da3e864f0b1&Headline=A+mouthful+of+venom

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Contribute Sikh news, pics, vids to the sikh blog

Sat Sri Akal,

We hereby request to all of our visitors to contribute News , pics, vids related to Sikhs from all over the world.

Best regards
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Anarkali Kaur makes Sikhs proud

Anarkali Kaur makes Sikhs proud
Jagmohan Singh
The beleaguered Sikh community in Afghanistan could not have had a better role model. At 25, Anarkali Kaur Honaryar is a doctor, an activist, a Radio presenter and a member of the independent Afghan Human Rights Committee and the official Constitution Committee. With the dupatta decently covering her head, she presents an image which makes every Sikh proud of her.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Radio Free Afghanistan (RFA)’s has declared her as the Person of the Year and Sikhs worldwide are quite happy to learn that.
The Sikh society is male dominated and the society in Afghanistan is terribly male-oriented. With the shadow of the Taliban looming large, the grit and determination of Anarkali Kaur can easily be compared with the legendary courage of Sundri of Bhai Vir Singh.
Since the last decade or so, a sizeable chunk of the community has fled Afghanistan to reside in India, Europe and the United Kingdom. A large number of them have been granted asylum and the Southall Bazar, once the centre of Punjabi Sikhs is now virtually called the Afghani Sikhs Street. They are ubiquitous by their small and unique turbans and the brashness of their youth. Not much is known about the status of their women, though. A large number of Afghani Sikhs live as stateless persons in India as India continues to grant them stay on a year to year basis, without confirming their residency.
Though Anjali Kaur could not fulfil her dream to become a pilot, she is certainly chanelling her life with respect and would be a shining star for all those who fight for an equal world.
Honaryar works for the country's Independent Human Rights Commission and has been consistently campaigning for equal rights and democracy. She was also a member of the Afghan Constitution Committee.
She was chosen as Person of the Year by human rights groups and journalists’ unions in Afghanistan.

with thanks : worldsikhnews.com

Indian 'riot politician' cleared

A former Indian federal minister accused over the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 has been cleared by police.
Congress party politician Jagdish Tytler said the case had destroyed his career but he had now been vindicated.
Sikh groups and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have criticised the police report.
Mr Tytler had been cleared in November 2007 but a month later the case was reopened after a witness said he saw Mr Tytler leading a riot mob.
The riots, sparked by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, left more than 3,000 Sikhs dead.
Mr Tytler has consistently denied any role in the rioting.
'Truth is out'
India's federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed its final report on the investigations into the riots to a Delhi court last week.
In the report, which was opened in court on Thursday, the investigative agency said it wanted to close the case against Mr Tytler.
"This case destroyed my career. And media portrayed me as a criminal. But the truth has finally come out. How can I react to the truth?" Mr Tytler told reporters in Delhi.
The CBI move angered Sikh groups.
"The victims have no rights. A criminal who is a politician who has money has all the rights," an unnamed victim told a private television channel.
The BJP has accused the CBI of working under the instructions of the Congress party government.
Mr Tytler is a Congress candidate for the forthcoming general elections.
'No evidence'
In November 2007, the CBI closed a case against Mr Tytler, saying there was "no evidence" or "witness" to establish that he had a role in the rioting.
But soon after, Jasbir Singh, who lives in California, claimed that he saw Mr Tytler lead a mob on a Sikh temple in Delhi during the riots.
Three Sikhs were burned to death in the attack on the temple.
Mr Singh, who lost 26 family members in the rioting, left the country after the incident.
The court asked the CBI to carry out a fresh investigation.
Mr Tytler had earlier been implicated by a judicial commission set up to investigate the 1984 killings.
The report, by retired Supreme Court judge GT Nanavati, was the ninth inquiry commission into the riots, and was set up in 2000 by the then governing BJP.
The inquiry found "credible evidence" against Mr Tytler and recommended further investigation into his role.
Mr Tytler submitted his resignation as a minister for expatriate Indians after being implicated in the riots.
He said he had resigned to have his "name cleared".

with thanks : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7978224.stm

Indian turban makes it big in German fashion

by Neeraja Ganesh

NEW DELHI, April 2 (Xinhua) -- In a first of its kind, a turbaned Indian American Sikh named Sonny Caberwal who is in India these days, has become the international face of the prestigious German men's magazine GQ.
Turbans, even if worn as symbol of Indian religion Sikhism, is in some nations, including Germany, associated with Osama bin Laden, where Sikhs have been targeted in hate attacks after the September 11 attack.
However, the 30-year-old Sikh has been featured in GQ's style Germany Spring Summer-2009.
He will go down as a "footnote in history for being a stereotype buster," the newspaper the Mail Today noted Thursday.
"It's not about me, but about Sikh identity and about our culture and traditions being shown in a positive light to people around the world," the Mail Today quoted Caberwal as saying in Mumbai.
Caberwal has received hundreds of comments and e-mails from people around the world telling him how proud they were to see their own identity being represented positively.
Caberwal's portfolio was shot in Hamburg, Germany, in January.
Conde Nast, the publishers of CQ discovered Caberwal after he appeared in 25th anniversary ad of leading American fashion house Kenneth Cole in 2008.
The GQ collection was for formal wear but they thought using turbaned Sikh would be cool, Caberwal told Mail Today.
Although he has been lucky in modeling world, Caberwal says there are still some challenges for turbaned model to gain mainstream attention.
On the positive side, he says there is definite place for unique and interesting looks, and in the western world, the turbaned look falls in that category.
Among the Sikhs, the turban is an article of faith that represents honor, self-respect, courage, spirituality, and piety.
The Sikhs wear the turban partly to cover their long, uncut hair. The turban is mostly identified with the Sikh males, although some Sikh women also wear turban. The Sikhs regard the turban as an important part of the unique Sikh identity.
The turban has been an important part of the Sikh culture since the time of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. The Sikh warriors, the Khalsa, wear turban, partly to cover their long hair, which is never cut, according to the wish of their last human Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
Editor: Fang Yang
with thanks : http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/02/content_11120758.htm