It is with a great distress and emotional turmoil that the Sikhs around the world have to witness the desecration of their Holy Scriptures, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
In the Village of Udhampur, near Morinda town in Rupnagar district of India’s Punjab state, during the early hours of 13 Aug 2011 some miscreants broke into the local Gurdwara Sahib and removed five Guru Granth Sahibs and dumped them in the well adjacent to the Gurdwara along with bottles of alcohol.
It has become apparent that the root cause is a dispute between a so called Lakhvir Singh Dharmian and the President of the Gurdwara committee over the taking of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji to a smaad (tomb) that takes place every year and attracts large amounts of congregational donations.
For this years event Lakhvir Singh wanted all of the funds accrued to be donated to the upkeep of the tomb. But the Gurdwara Committee wanted to use the money for the Gurdwara. It should be noted that the taking of the scriptures to unholy places like tombs is forbidden in the Sikh faith. It is well documented that desecration and disrespect of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji has been ongoing since 1978 and I.P.D will not tolerate this. Thus I.P.D with other sister organisations coupled with its presence in Punjab is working towards ending this sacrilege.
On this incident I.P.D would like to praise the quick response by Amrik Singh (Anjala) and other Gursikhs who attended the location and justly portrayed the anger felt by Sikhs worldwide.
This visit was further followed up by I.P.Ds Singh Sahib Bhai Jasvir Singh Ji Khalsa and Baba Baljit Singh who both demanded a thorough investigation by the authorities followed by swift justice so as to calm the situation. In parallel the Sikh religious authorities were demanded to follow suit with addressing the stated demands.
I.P.D would like to encourage the Indian authorities to grasp this opportunity to illustrate their disgust of this terrible act thus indicating that they are not anti –Sikh. Additionally, we request why the local authorities attempted to cover up the incident.
I.P.D requests that the culprits of this atrocity are dealt with severely thus giving a strong message. As a minimum the charge 295A, which has been logged, is delivered with a 3 year custody.
295A – Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.
Additionally, we request all Sikh institutes to never leave Maharaj alone at any time and where possible employ religious guards for the security of Maharaj and Gurdwara as has been recently illustrated in UK during the riots. IPD would like to close in encouraging all Sikh organizations especially the SGPC to raise the awareness to Sikhs and non-Sikhs the respect Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji deserves highlighting how all are encapsulated within it irrespective of their religion or caste. I.P.D will monitor developments on this incident and will support steps towards achieving justice.
