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Punjab & Haryana High (kangaroo) Court rules against 50% reservations for Sikh diaspora & local Sikh students in SGPC-financed-administered educational institutions located in Indian Occupied Sikh Homeland of Punjab
Washington, DC - Latest in a string of recent provocations targeting the beleaguered Sikh minority in Punjab, (e.g. controversy over displaying a portrait of respected Shaheed Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the Central Sikh Museum, located inside the Darbar Sahib complex; anti-Sikh campaign by senior Indian journalist/agent provocateur Kuldip Nayar about that portrait by rote in the print media; construction of the illegal Hansi-Bhutana Link canal in Haryana to siphon Punjab river water; ignoring very serious ground water contamination in the Punjab which is killing thousands of Punjabis while its river water, which could recharge underground water, is exported free of charge to non-riparian Rajasthan and Haryana states; and hurtful Sirsa Baba affair which ridiculed Sikh Gurus et al.) is the unfair and dishonest ruling, on Monday December 17, by a bigoted bench of the Brahmin-dominated Punjab and Haryana High Court which will effect the education prospects of future generations of the Sikh community in the Punjab and the diaspora.
A divisional bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising two bigoted Hindutva judges, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ajay Lamba, has on December 17, 2007, declared as ultra vires (of the Indian Constitution) the Punjab government notification, of April 2001. This notification has over the years allowed numerous Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee-funded-administered Sikh educational institutions, to reserve 50% seats for Sikh students, hailing from the states of Haryana, Himachel Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh and the diaspora, who have lagged way behind the Hindu community in education and have much catching up to do in order to survive in the world of the ‘internet’ in the 21st century.
The 2-member Punjab and Haryana High Court Division Bench (Punjab, unlike Himachel Pradesh, Manipur-Imphal, Jharkand, Chhattisgarh and other small states of India does not deserve a separate High Court nor does it have a capital city of its own – it has been forced to share both with Haryana state) gave the ruling on a petition filed by one Sahil Mittal, a Hindu resident of Sangrur district. In his petition against the state of Punjab (and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, SGPC and the Managing Committee of Sri Guru Ramdass Institute of Medical Sciences) petitioner Sahil Mittal had earlier sought the quashing of April 2001 notification declaring Sikh education institutions in the state as ‘minority’ and permitting them to reserve 50 per cent seats for the members of the Sikh community. Directions were also sought from the High Court for quashing other notifications of the state of Punjab dated April 2006, and of June 18, 2007. These notifications allowed certain institutions to divide the NRI (non-resident Sikh diaspora) seats equally between the government quota and the management quota. The petitioner had also asked for quashing the notification dated August 1, 2007, fixing separate fee structure for government quota of management seats.
Allowing the petition, filed by Sahil Mittal, a Barnala-based Hindu student, who was denied admission to an institute financed by the SGPC, the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, (comprising two Neo-Nazi Hindutva judges, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ajay Lamba) ruled that notifications issued by the Punjab government in April 2001 are declared void. Pronouncing the orders in an open court, the Bench observed: “There is nothing to show from the written statement by the state of Punjab that it had any material or even a grievance that, as a group, the Sikhs apprehended deprivation of their religious, cultural or educational rights in the state of Punjab from any other community, who may be in majority and who may gain political power in the elections. On this short ground, the impugned notification cannot be sustained in law.”
In their detailed order, the Bench of the Punjab & Haryana High Court (read ‘Hindutva Kangaroo Court’) cited a number of the Supreme Court judgments before observing that, “the country could not have been taken as a single unit, as has been done; and there was no material to substantiate that ‘Sikhs’ were not dominant in the state of Punjab. As a consequence of the notification, additional protection had been conferred on a group of citizens in an unauthorized manner, while excluding other similarly placed citizens. This was clearly in violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution”.
The Punjan & Haryana High Court Bench also ruled that all consequential action would not affect the admissions prior to the date of judgment, except for the ones which were subject matter of the pending proceedings. The bigoted Hindu-dominated ‘Kangaroo Court’ Bench further ruled that, “We further direct that the claim of the petitioner be now considered in accordance with the law in the light of this judgment within one month from the date of receipt of the copy of the order.” According to a front page report in yesterday’s Tribune newspaper, the development is significant as (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071218/main2.htm) these SGPB-financed educational institutes would not be able to reserve up to 50 per cent of the seats for the members of the Sikh community. The Punjab government may move the Supreme Court against the orders of Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Advocate-general Sirdar Hardev Singh Mattewal was quoted as saying since the case involved an important legal issue. As such, he said, they would go into all aspects of the case, and after perusing the judgment, will take a decision on moving the Indian Supreme court. He further added that, “the SGPC had become an inter-state body after the Punjab Re-organization Act and was serving four ‘states’ of Punjab, Haryana, Himachel Pradesh and Chandigarh. Otherwise also, as per the electoral college, the Sikhs were in minority”. The Punjab Advocate-general however, forgot to mention that Punjab also serves the three million strong Sikh diaspora.
According to another report in yesterday’s HINDU newspaper, the Media Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister, Sirdar Harcharan Singh Bains, reacting to the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling, said the state of Punjab would legally contest the court order which ruled that Sikhs were NOT a minority (http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/18/stories/2007121854620500.htm) community in seeking admission to Sikh institutions run and financed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) in the Punjab. The Court declared as ultra vires of the Constitution the notification issued by the Punjab Government declaring SGPC-run and financed Sikh institutions as minority institutions. Under that April 2001 notification, the SGPC-run and financed educational institutions, in the four ‘states’ of Punjab, Haryana, Himachel Pradesh and Chandigarh. were permitted to reserve 50 per cent seats for members of the Sikh community.
As if synchronized with the above mentioned December 17 judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court the double-faced, silky tongue agent provocateur Hindu journalist, Kuldip Nayar, has again in his column published in the Asian Age newspaper, on 17 December, 2007, aired his typical mischief.
(http://www.asianage.com/presentation/columnisthome/kuldip-nayar-.aspx)
Instead of minding his own business, Kuldip Nayar has objected to the caption under the Sant Bhindranwale portrait in the Central Sikh Museum inside the Darbar Sahib complex which, truly expresses the unanimous admiration of the Sikh nation for Shaeed Sant Bhindranwale, when it correctly reads: “The great Sikh General of the 20th century, and the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs attained martyrdom on Wednesday, the 6th June, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honor and prestige of Sri Harminder Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib.” Kuldip Nayar, a true Hindu fascist at heart considers the wording as “unfortunate because the Indian armed forces represent India. The government and India are two separate entities.” Are they?
It seems the caption under the portrait of the greatest Sikh of the 20th century, Shaheed Sant Bhindranwale, in the Sikh History Museum, has stuck in agent provocateur Kuldip Nayar’s craw as two weeks earlier in his column published, on 7 December, 2007, in Pakistan’s leading English newspaper, DAWN, Kuldip Nayar wrote
(http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/07/op.htm) that, “However, more debatable than the portrait is the text written below it: “The great Sikh General of the 20th century and the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs, attained martyrdom on Wednesday, June 6th, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honour and prestige of Sri Harminder Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib. The wordings are unfortunate because the Indian armed forces represent India. The government and India are two separate entities”. What nonsense! It seems Mr. Kuldip Nayar is airing his hidden phantoms about the muscular Sikhs by rote. He seems to have forgotten the gratis education he received, over eleven years ago on Sunday, 14 July, 1996, in the presence of the Illinois Palatine Gurdwara Sahib sangat when, as is his wont, he aired his dezinformatsiya with a silky tongue and got ambushed. The following link
(http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/media/audio/speeches/dramarjit/kuldipnayar.mp3) should remind him to lay off and also educate him that repeating disinformtion about Sikhs is counter productive as it can easily boomerang any time any where.
A grim picture of Indian Occupied Punjab and the Sikh minority surfaces in an article, dated 24 December, 2007, written by Chander Suta Dogra, in the latest issue of India’s prestigious OUTLOOK magazine headlined, “PUNJAB HEALTH – Poison Earth - Courtesy an overzealous Green Revolution, Punjab has poison in its water and a cancer epidemic on its hands – The curse is spreading ...” is a MUST READ for every Punjabi specially those of the diapora. It should be an eye opener for those who have friends and relatives living in Indian Occupied Punjab (which has been held captive behind a double barbed wire ‘Berlin Wall’ since 1947). To read the spine-chilling article please click at the following link:
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071224&fname=Cancer+%28F%29&sid=1
According to the above mentioned OUTLOOK article the Chandigarh-based Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research has conducted a two-years long study in five villages along Punjab’s major rivulets in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar districts and found that 88 per cent (yes 88%) ground water samples showed alarming levels of mercury with over 50 per cent samples of ground and tap water was contaminated by arsenic. Vegetables like Lady’s fingers, carrots, gourds, cauliflower and chillies were found to have toxic levels of lead, cadmium, and mercury which affect the nervous system. Pesticides beyond permissible limit was found in vegetables, fodder, human and bovine milk, as well as blood samples.Blood samples of 65% of the villagers showed DNA mutation; which has resulted in a sharp increase in cancer, neurological disorders, liver and kidney diseases, congenital defects and miscarriages. This health crisis in Indian Occupied Punjab has been caused by the overuse of pesticides and the dumping of industrial effluents, which have made both soil and water toxic in the absence of natural recharge by the waters of the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers which life-giving commodity is being siphoned ‘off the top’ (with central government connivance) to quench the unending thirst of the parched non-riparian Hindu-majority states of Rajasthan and Haryana. Punjab be damned is the attitude in these ungrateful states and the center!
A week ago the BBC also carried a Delhi datelined report by Sunil Raman, which revealed that a study commissioned by the Punjab Water Pollution Control Board found 80% of ground water samples from the Punjab had mercury that was far beyond the permissible level. Arsenic was found in 70% of samples of effluent, 50% of tap water samples and 57.7% of ground water samples. A high degree of pesticides had contaminated water in drains in parts of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr. The study says that blood samples collected from people in the area showed that in 65% of the cases the DNA had mutated because of high levels of ground water contamination causing a high prevalence of congenital deformities, cancer and kidney damage.
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7119780.stm )
The sudden, and provocative, decision by the two Neo-Nazi Hindutva judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court to interfere with the six years old admission policies of the SGPC-financed and administered educational institutions, in Indian Occupied Punjab, should alert every Sikh to the conspiracies brewing in the neighborhood. A report in the Tribune, on 25 November, 2007, (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071125/punjab1.htm#3) by Sarbjit Dhaliwal headlined, “Hansi Bhutana canal – Haryana using all means to get approval,” gives an indication of the direction the conspiracy might take. Dhaliwal wrote that, “As ground is slipping from under the feet of Haryana on the Hansi-Butana canal project issue, it is trying hard to use its political influence at the Union Government level to get the canal project cleared from the Central Water Commission (CWC) by hook or by crook.”
Instead of ‘viewing various theses being advanced by the Haryana Government to justify the construction of the Hansi-Bhutana canal for which neither any prior clearance was taken from the Central Water Commission nor the project discussed with Punjab and Haryana, both partner in the Bhakra mainline canal from which water is to flow in the controversial illegal canal,’ the Badal government should be mustering all the Punjabi leadership to take a united stand in the streets, with morchas and strikes, in case the Indian Supreme Court too pulls a ‘rabbit from the hat’ like the Punjab & Haryana High Court has done.
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