Declining number of registered voters for SGPC polls, scheduled for later this year, has given fresh impetus to traditionally excluded Sehajdhari Sikhs' demand for voting rights.
An amendment to Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, a central law, barred sehajdharis from voting in SGPC polls. It was challenged by Sehajdhari Sikh Party in 2017 in HC, where case is still pending.
Every Sikh adult with unshorn hair is eligible to cast ballot. While total number of voters till Thursday was 27.45 lakh, it was over 52 lakh when SGPC polls were last held in 2011.
SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, SGPC & Akal Takht thank Ram Mandir trust for invite to consecration. Meanwhile, Congress’s Bajwa says he will take people to Ayodhya to seek blessings of Ram.
From its small production centre in Chandni Chowk, Simco shifted to a larger unit in Naraina industrial belt and then to Himachal & Rajasthan. The sales have only increased.
It is crucial to point out that long-standing issues for the Sikh community do not primarily stem from BJP or its Hindutva agenda. Instead, the wounds are older and more profound.
When Punjabis become unhappy with their situation, they will vote out their government. They won’t go to some Trudeau or Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to seek help for a regime change.
The inability of Indians to have a conversation about the past—the bombing of Air India, 1984 riots, storming of the Golden Temple—has poisoned communal relationships.
India’s foreign policy today is driven less by Western alignment or global liberalism and more by domestic political imperatives — economic, ideological, and electoral.
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