So here we are almost two weeks later and the situation in Punjab with the dera is still volatile as ever. Although calm has taken its course over the last week, the whole drama still has many anxiously sitting at the edge’s of their seats, waiting to see what the next move is. Like a game of chess every one’s eyes are now on the board and it’s the Panths turn to make its play, after the Baba released his devious “apology” in the last turn. The idleness keeps the minds searching, keeping it analyzing every possible move, keeping a look out for those nefarious angles the whole time trying to grip and make sense of what’s happening, the reason and logic behind the madness.

As always I continue to see this as less of a religious or panthic situation, rather a political tango between India’s Capulet’s and the Montague’s with the Panth being held captive in between. This has little to do with ones own faith rather the manipulation of that faith for something of its ones own desires. If nothing else a glaring result as to why the Panth should remain independent of any political party and remain independent as the permanent opposition of Punjab, for its only in its own independence can it remain objective.

The last angle focused completely on Badal, him being the puppet master, the ring leader of this fiasco, but as Harp notably pointed out that their are inherit flaws with that frame of logic, after all it takes two to tango, and that being the case one needs to consider an angle with more then just one ring leader. So lets do just that, lets add in more angles more actors and check the path it leads.

Quick Review:

• The Akali’s blame the Dera for his strong hold and clout on the Malwa region, which saw them loose some top seats in the past elections.
• The Dera put its weight behind the Congress the long sworn enemies of the Akali Dal.
• The Dera is centered in Sirsa located in Haryana and thus out of the Akali’s jurisdiction.
• Haryana’s government is Congress, and being boys with the Dera got his back.
• SGPC and Sri Akal Takhat are greatly influenced by Akali’s and Badal.

There should be little doubt as to what Badal and them want to gain from this, by raising up hell against the Dera there is the plausible chance that his grip over the Malwa region will slip, giving the Akalis a better chance in the region next time around. But see a war against the Dera naturally ensues a war against Congress after all what type of friend lets another go at it alone. There are inherit questions that one needs to ask: who fed the news to the media to get it pushed and make it “news”. See the Dera released the ad’s, but why?  There’s no doubt that the Akali’s wanted to deal with the Dera, but I doubt that this was the way they had in mind. So where did the dera gain the fortitude to be so bold in its actions, which I accredit to the older cousin theory; that when one knows that they got older cousins behind them who are down for ruckus, then by virtue that younger cousin gets a little ballsy.

There’s no question about the Indian media’s loyalties and its history to take a story and sensationalize it, twist it, manipulate it, without any shame when it comes to the regard of spearheading a campaign of propaganda and the news reports that have been coming out of this fiasco prove this point. The news is both hook and bait, on one end its saying, “so what you going do about it”, taunting the Sikhs to take action against the dera, and on the other “look at what you did”, as if the reaction was out of the blue and totally unforeseen. This plays well to the congress since it now agitates a community within Punjab that everyone has tried to keep dormant for so long, what the media has come to dub, “Sikh militancy groups”.

The thing with Sikh Nationalists that’s worth keeping in mind is that at least seemingly, they despise Badal and the current Akali’s, they also despise Congress and for them it’s not a matter of power as much as it is of Independence and the freedom of the Akal Takhat and the Sikh faith. To this regard, pushing them only knows one end, and that’s to be pushed back, which of course is what Congress would love to see happen. Once you push this group then the Congress has only but to slip back into Haryana and seeing how this is a Punjab problem leaves Badal to deal with an agitated group who is willing to go at it. Now Badal’s left to deal and take charge against the same people who he is supposed to represent, if not directly then at least through the SGPC and the voice of the Akal Takhat.

Now look at the past events, taking the Dera and the Congress to be one and the same, we see how both have helped to agitate this situation. Same time Badal and his BJP cronies have done what they can to reveal a sound level of diplomacy, (the Swami was from the pockets of the BJP). So it leaves the problematic play in the hands of Badal yet again. If the Akal Takhat rejects the apology then we can assume chaos will ensue with riots similar to that of the weeks past, leaving Badal to quell the situation, which could hurt him politically. Accepting the apology leaves Badal vulnerable to attack by the Nationalists as it would see Badal siding with the Dera, which again brings the potential to have riots start up all over Punjab. Therefore leaving the only real play Badal can make is to get the SGPC and Akal Takhat to reject the apology yet grant an extension to the dera so that diplomacy can ensue, which could show a weakness on the part of the Sikhs, yet would buy Badal and group, more time to deal with the situation.

Now Congress’s angle in this would be that getting riots to ensue and by putting Badal in the hot seat, they could then react on a federal level, where congress reigns supreme, and voice that presidents rule be implemented in Punjab, effectively throwing out the Akalis and putting power and Punjab into the hands of the Congress party. They could then continue to feed and ride the Punjab situation for as long as they need effectively kicking Badal and company to the curb.

Of course this is all speculation, but lets face it nothing about this situation adds up. End of the day, both parties Congress and the Akali’s are merely separate sides to the same coin, but it remains that neither truley have the Panths welfare at the heart of any of there decisions, so it’s up to the Panth to dictate and exert there own level of leadership to find a way out of this situation.

When the rich wage war its the poor who die, when the Akali’s wage war its the blood of the Panth that’s spilled.

For years now we’ve heard accusations of Badal being the puppet master, using the SGPC and the Akal Takhat to do his dirty work, but in recent weeks with the situation in Punjab, Badal’s grip on Punjab, the Panth and his true motives have never been clearer.

See as much as we want to believe that the recent weeks have shown the Panths ability to come together and group against a common foe, that the Singh’s in Punjab are tired of taking things lightly and are ready once again to rise up, the truth is far from it. Rather what the events of the recent weeks have shown is that Badal has the power to manipulate the Panth into serving as his own personal army.

Lets face facts although what the Dera chief did was wrong, it’s not the worst that’s happened . See as bad as doing beadbi and attempting to make a mockery of the amrit sinchar is, he’s not the first to do it. Mann Chand, the Naamdharis all beat him to that punch and have been doing it for a while now.

If it’s the fact that he’s a pakhandi sant with the guise of a Sikh, with multiple CBI cases against him ranging from murder, rape etc then again he’s not the first, there have been worse, Nang Phula, Mann Chand and countless other so called Babay who have raped innocent girls only doors away from Maharaaj ta Darbaar roam free in Punjab with seemingly full immunity, some even with Badals blessing and support.

If it’s the fact that his followers have hurt peaceful Sikh protestors leading to one Singhs shaheedi, then why is it that the likes of KPS Gill, Amita Bachan, Ashotoush and Noormalia, haven’t been asked to surrender, after all shirly they have spilled more sikh blood then this clown.

Why is it that a small band of “bhajangi Khalsa” a force that has been reported to be no greater then a few hundred young Sikhs, been placed in charge to deal with the Dera’s if they refuse to abide by the ultimatum set fourth by the Akal Takhat, knowing full well that the Dera and its followers won’t go without a fight. If this were to happen and a confrontation to ensue then the the Singhs involved would no doubt be outnumbered and made to give up their lives attaining Shaheedi, which could easily be avoided simply by increasing the #’s of these fauj’s. After all why sacrifice a drop of blood if it isn’t needed?

Now lets not also forget that Malwa the center in which the Dera has the most clout, reportedly voted 60% in favour of Congress as opposed to apparently having had a long history of being an Akali hot seat. Knowing that Badal has used strong armed tactics in various forms in the past to intimidate the electorate could this attack not be seen as nothing more then Badal merely flexing some muscle? It will be interesting to see how such of an effect on the polls closing of the Dera’s and everything else that has gone on, has next time around.

Lets not also dismiss the mixed signals coming out of the various parties. For instance the Hukamnaama for a full out closure which after realizing lack of jurisdiction to this regard has been re-evaluated to being a favourably worded apology. 

 The natural question that comes to mind after all of the above is why? What do the Badal’s and Akali’s have to gain from such actions. Well being able to coerce the Akal Takhat into making concessions does Badal not come out looking like the good guy the one who brought an end to the protests, exuberating the leadership expected of him? The cool head in a tense situation makes him look gold. Would sacrificing many more of our youth if need be not serve to rile up the Panth into a full out war against the Dera? Most likely the case, which again goes to server the Akalis more then anyone else. Why is it that the Dera is the target of all this as opposed to other individuals who have done the Panth more harm in the past 20 years? Is it because the others cooperate with Badal and are on his good side? Could it not be, because the Dera can be touched and the wrath of a few thousand poor is less feared then that of the political might that could be possibly felt if one went up against the likes of KPS Gill or Ashotoush? What about the fact that such actions serve to only strengthen the Akali party which Badals son is being groomed to take lead of in the near future. Giving him the party, after presenting the need for an Akali goverment in punjab, only serves to impower and ensure that the Badal legacy and tenure of terror continues.

I fully understand and realize that we could play the game of “what if” all day, and speculation is nothing more then hearsay with legs, but given the past history of the Badal’s and SAD, it would be ignorant and deviant-ly deceitful on our own parts to at least not look at the situation from as many different angles as possible, after all, “If you can’t see the angles no more, you’re in trouble.”

Firstly I apologize to those who’ve been looking for a post, for not having had one sooner, but truthfully there’s nothing new for me to add that isn’t already known or hasn’t already been published by more credible sources, and like everyone else look to these sources for any new bit of information they can pass our way.

The controversy for those not aware in a nut shell is the leader of Dera Sacha Sauda, who’s name really deserves no promotion, thought he was a bad ass, went out and tried to create his own institution of Amrit, but instead of blessing the world with nectar of the iron blade, he instead got prissy and gave us a big bowl of pink milk [not that there’s anything wrong with rufza, but saying you got baptized by it, is just weak]. Anyway’s the Baba went on to initiate what he called sat-sitaray, and after administering the pink milk to his followers knelt in front of them and asked they initiate him with the sticky pink stuff also.

Once that image and news hit the desi papers, all hell started [as it should] broke loose and Sangat’an gathered in Bhatinda to protest, and protest they did burning effigies and all. If this Baba was running it small time like Mann Chand or whoever else this would have been it the end of it, but seeing as how this Dera has thousands of followers those mans decided to crash the Protest attacking those protesting and also causing a scene. Now lets face it, after 1978 and 1984 the panth has had this flame in the pit of its gut just looking for a spark to come out, a means to lash out and the Baba’s chelay crashing the protest and showing that they were ready to go toe to toe is what ignited that flame.

So now you had riots in Bhatinda, The Panth vs the Dera and its chelay. Well that’s what it looks like on the outside if off course there wasn’t the political undertone which also exists at bottom of this which features the legendary bout between Congress and the Akali’s.

See Badal knew that the Dera had clout amongst the masses and it’s why he made it a pit stop in his campaign for votes, but unlike the small time Babay that he has under his wing the Dera wanted what Badal couldn’t deliver and there go threw its support behind the Congress party. Which in turn gives this situation a political overtone that could clearly well overshadow the phantic matter at hand, albeit 1978 and 84 were riddled with political overtones which are used to discredit the movement all the time.

Since Monday (when the first protests happened), protests have sparked up all over the once thriving state of Punjab, and it would seem as though that Sikhs have felt the bigger of the blows in terms of negative media coverage and causalities, all the same the fight continues.

 What has me confused is if Badal and the Akali’s, are the ones who started this [supposedly], then why is Badal posturing for the Jatehdars he has under his thumb to hold off from bringing about a sandesh or Hukamnamaa (Badal reportedly asked them to hold for a week), after all wouldn’t it be in his best interest? None the less, Singh Sahib Vedanti today issused a hukamanama stating a full out boycott against the Dera all the same.

Most Singh’s I know and have spoken to, are riling at the news and many are on the edge of their seats with a cross between eager and nervous anxiousness, hoping that this is just what the Panth needed and what will once and for all bring us right back to where we left off in the mid 80’s, but I guess that will be left up to how our leaders and the government react to the incident. Although how many have actually gone out and bought tickets to India to join in the struggle is yet to be seen, but whether this in fact sparks a re-emergence of the struggle is also yet to be seen.

As far as what I expect to come out of all this, my guess is as good as the next man’s. Whether this finally brings about a time when all those of us who once talked about giving Shaheedi a chance to actually live up to our words or on the flip side coward behind them is to soon to be known. After all this whole thing could just shrivel up into being just an isolated incident that could have put India back into a civil war, but didn’t. But seeing as how this has led to a few Kurbani and injuries already, I doubt that this will be just another foot note in our history.

So lets see what happens and hope that the Himmat is still there.

Sikh American Veteran Assaulted by Police Officer in Illinois

SALDEF calls for immediate probe into assault and the xenophobic, anti-immigrant statements by police officer against bronze star recipient.

NagRockedWashington D.C., April 11, 2007 — The Sikh American Legal Def ense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the oldest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization in the country, today called upon the Joliet Police Department to investigate the actions of one of its officers when patrolling a local neighborhood.

On Friday March 30, 2007 at around 3:00pm, Mr. Kuldip Singh Nag, a Sikh American who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in the U.S. Navy during the first Gulf War, was at his home in Joliet, IL when a local police officer noticed that a van parked on Mr. Nag’s private property had expired registration tags. Upon being confronted with this, Mr. Nag’s wife, Vera Kaur Nag, informed the officer that the van is parked on their driveway and was inoperable.

Mr. Nag then came outside to answer the officer’s questions regarding the van. The Joliet police officer then demanded that Mr. Nag park the van inside his garage and not on the driveway, to which Mr. Nag responded to the officer that it was not possible and that regardless, the van is parked on his private property and he has a right to park it on his driveway.

At this moment, the officer pulled out his pepper spray and attacked Mr. Nag. As Mr. Nag screamed in agony, the officer removed his baton and violently struck Mr. Nag numerous times until he fell to the ground. While the assault ensued, the officer was reported by both Mr. and Mrs. Nag as saying, “You f****** Arab! You f***** immigrant, go back to you f****** country before I kill you!”.

Mr. Nag’s wife and six year-old child both witnessed the violent assault, which resulted in Mr. Nag immediately being admitted to the hospital where he stayed for five days due to complaints of intense pain and head trauma. Mr. Nag also received numerous bruises and a serious head injury which have caused him to go blind for several minutes at a time.

“This case seems to be a clear incident of police misconduct in Illinois,” said SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh. “We are horrified at the anti-immigrant sentiment the officer allegedly used as he violently accosted Mr. Nag, and further that his six year old son was a witness to this violent assault. We call upon both Joliet and Illinois officials to investigate this incident and for the Illinois community to stand in solidarity with Mr. Nag.

SALDEF has garnered the strong support of the Illinois Sikh American community and is currently working with The Chawla Group Ltd to represent Mr. Nag in a criminal case brought on by the City of Joliet.

When Rodney King, a black man from LA, was pulled over and beaten by the cops his story sparked mass race riots in Los Angeles. A similar story happened back 2001 in Cincinnati when Steven Roach was aquited of murdering an unarmed black youth. So then today I hear the story about Kuldip Nag, a desi , US Gulf War Veteran who gets his ass beaten by a cop over expired plates on a van that was broken and sitting in his driveway and there’s still little thought or even threat of shit hitting the fan.

Naturally this leads me to wonder if we as a community are we waiting for more stupidness to go down before we see the Jessie Jacksons of our community (whoever they maybe) get out in the media and start blasting the police and getting the community all roweled up to take action.

Sadly enough, most uncles we see are more then complacent when it comes to this type of news and would rather try to lead the community in the direction of least resistance and confrontation, with the mentality that hey we’ll make life easier for them now then maybe master will help us out a bit later on, when we need to get that visa or those immigration papers signed.

See I agree screaming and looting and parading down the downtown cores won’t do anything for us other then get us labeled as savages, but some sort of outrage on a communal level should be expected and delivered. See maybe its complete over reaction on my part to expect such things, after all compared to India, the number of us getting beat for random shit by cops is still relatively minimal, but when do we take a beating as more then a beating? Unless we let people know that we’re not down for getting our asses beat and labeled Arabs I just don’t see this type of shit ending any time soon.

See I’m not trying to say that what Saldef, and the Sikh Coalition are doing isn’t enough, I’m more interested in how long it will be before the rest of us and the broader community takes notice of such things and starts letting our voices be heard.

I’ve always held that as we grow older, we grow dumber. I know that it sounds ironic, considering we’re always learning new things and constantly evolving our understanding of the world around us, but at the same time we continuously throw out the very fundamentals that our knowledge and education is based upon. A prime example and proof of this is the newest game show to flood the air waves,Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which has educated individuals (graduates of various majors) answering questions that span from grades 1 to 5, in a Jeopardy meets Who Wants to be a Millionaire type cross over. For instance, in one episode a UCLA American History Major lost with the question, “Who was the first American President to be impeached?”, his answer isn’t important but its suffice to say that he got it wrong, and was embarrassed on national TV. Or for instance the time that I was able to convince one of my boys, (a third year bio chem student), to write my first year intro to chem exam only for him to to go in and completely bomb it.

Point being, as we grow older we tend to gain a sense of false pride with what we really don’t know, that we overlook and realize that we really didn’t understand things all that well to begin with, rather we temporarily knew enough to get by on. Now this makes perfect sense for school after all why stress, as long as it gets your name on a diploma or degree, after all that’s what really counts, isn’t it? But our growth of stupidity goes well beyond school and extends far into the real world, especially when it comes down to our privacy and security.

For instance it’s hammered into our heads as kids to never talk with strangers, since we never really know their intentions or if they even are who they say they are, but at the same time, how many times have we read or heard about fraudsters posing as someone who they aren’t and scamming some poor couple out of their entire life savings, leaving them broke and on the streets. Or the one about never taking gifts from strangers or how about the one that one that really inspired this post, what about the whole never revealing your personal info in public chat rooms since it may lead to pedophiles, stalkers or even thieves to use information they gain to potentially cause you grief. Off course it makes perfect sense when we’re teaching these lessons to to the little ones, come on now with all the pedophiles and stalkers out their its only logical to not give away your personal details, but then why is that the second most people grow into their teens and into adults they feel these rules no longer apply to them?

Social networking sites such as facebook, hi5, myspace and the lot have people revealing not only their names, but their numbers, addresses, schedules and even who they know and how they know them, and revealing nothing short of their past history. After all it’s that sense of community which drives these sites to be successful in the fist place. But what if someone wants to use this info against you? You’re basically giving away personal security information, leaving anyone inept enough in social hacking to go out and pretend to be you to someone else, getting information about you that you would be alarmed to find out they could. Then again how one can go about using information on these sites to hack is worthy of its own post.

So it isn’t that far of a stretch of ones imagination to think about ‘what if‘ this information was used as a voluntary means to watch over or to learn everything about you and to basically know you so well that they could predict your behaviour. That idea alone is enough to send shivers down the spines of most civil libertarians and drive many to put on tin foil hats. What if there was that proverbial man in the black coat lurking in the shadows, using such sites to watch over and monitor you? Having you voluntarily hand over your life history, in the guise of a social networking site, while selling your soul [or at least all the info they have] to the big corporations who then use the said information to continue to drive the capitalistic engine using you as nothing more then fuel for the fire. Agreed that such conspiracy theories are often far fetched over whelming and nothing more then fear mongering against the king of the hill, but at the same what if there was some truth to all the above?

To that end I found this video that may act as an eye opener for many of you, and may make you realize how much closer we are to the above then you would want to think.

Seeing the above it should be obvious if not a bit amazing all at the same time as to how much more we know,the more we really seem to forget.

Was sent this link courtesy of Umpa and also found it on Garth Turners blog as being the official, “We want Stephen Harper to apologize to Navdeep Bains” petition.

Last time Navdeep asked for an apology the PM basically danced around the issue saying all he did was quote an article from a newspaper, and if Nav’s got any beef he should take it up with Kim Bolan and the Vancouver Sun, in other words, “don’t shoot the messenger.”

Even though I don’t see or believe that the petition will get the PM to change his mind anytime soon, but the fact that you’re reading this means you have nothing better to do anyways so just sign the damn thing!

Petition for Harper to apologize

Let me try and paint you a picture. The only people I can really trust are my boys. We all grew up together, we’ve all seen the same shit, and we’re all down for one another. We got each other’s backs through thick and thin. We’ll roll up on whoever disrespects us, and the whole one for all and all for one thing isn’t just something we say, its something we breathe, and bleed. Whoever thinks that they’re bigger then us, tighter then us or whatever is just another arrogant fuck who needs to be shown his place. If they think they got number’s then we’ll show them who got’s balls. If they think they got balls, then we’ll see how large. Man, they don’t even know who we really are. They don’t know my cousins they don’t know that we down with those next crews those next legends. Those guys from that next school they’re all pussies, they don’t got nobody. They all talk, and they all snitches. That next mans crew from down there, those guys are just clowns and if it ever came down to it, they ain’t down for shit. Gats, bats, golf clubs whatever it takes you gotta protect yourself and your boys. You gotta take it to them before they bring it to you, you can’t let them think you’re soft, not even for a minute.  I’ve seen and heard it all. I’ve seen things with my eyes that I can’t even begin to explain to anyone else, not my parents, teachers not the preachers none of them will ever be able to understand a thing about the life that I’m living. Yea, I session still and ya I’m flexing that next chic. Man that dude thinks hes hard because he dealing that girl, man I could flex her in a minute, she ain’t shit. Bun it yo, everyone’s fucked.

The above is the ghetto fantasy that we’re living in. The reality of the matter is, is that our neighborhoods are mostly all middle class. That the people at the other schools really don’t care that much for us, and that we really aren’t near as big or as bad as we like to believe. None the less most our high school lives we play the above roles adopt the above mind set, and we become characters to our own delusions, which are fed by our friends and older siblings every day. Stories of the older generations pass down year by year at every high school, narrating tales that rival those of Tony Montana, leading us deeper and deeper into being characters that are filled with more hate and disrespect then the last. While every generation had its own war stories, its fights, its crews, and everything else in between end of the day none of it really counts for much or matters for anything, a small minuscule piece of who we are; a time in our lives that we can usually accredit to being nothing more then adolescent stupidity. Yet with every passing year, that character we all once played becomes darker and filled with more disrespect and hate, the chances of new youth leaving it behind and being able to reflect on it and lay claim to their own acts of adolescent stupidity grows less and less. That’s because somewhere down that line the character consumes them, it becomes who they want to be and they can no longer tell between what’s real and whats fake. That fantasy is all they come to know and all they care to know, and that’s what needs to change.

See as fun as that whole fantasy is, as glamorous as that life may seem at that time, that life is one that has no future. There are no winners only losers. A fantasy that leaves many with addictions and habits that they spend there entire lives trying to fix. Demons that become so real that fear is all they come to know. A paranoia that they just can’t look past. And as redundant as it may seem we need to stop praising and glorifying it. The sessions, the bar fights, the jams the whatever the only way we can ever kill the fantasy is by killing the false sense of glory that we associate with it. This game of tag that we play where instead of tagging one another we beat each other into coma’s and into hospital beds needs to not get the praise that we all tend to give it, because sooner or later we all get a chance to be “it”, and in trying to deal with the pressure we cross the lines, each time trying to outdo one another that sooner or later we reach the point of no return.

Now many people may disagree with me. Saying and feeling that their own reality is different. That they’re more then just characters. That maybe I was a character, or lived the way I described but I don’t know the half of it. Then please prove me wrong. If we do want to live a thug life and the whole gangster life and all of that, then just stop being cowards. Lets all get together, every crew, every school whatever and lets have a revolution. Let’s go to where there’s a fight and help out. Darfur, Rawanda, Burma heck even India. You don’t even need to leave the country, start the revolution right here. Socail causes are a dime a dozen pick one support it, create change. But lets face it we don’t want to do that, we just want to be characters. We just want to be be cartoons, but if we really wanted to do something, if we were all that tough then lets start a revolution, lets get out of here, lets do something. If we’re going to get shot at, beat up, or fight then at least let it mean something. Let it have some meaning. Let it stand for something. Thats all I’m trying to say.