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N
E W S Sikh
News Network May marks the Gur Purab of Guru Amar Das, a champion of women's rights. But Sikh women had nothing to celebrate yesterday as a group of fifteen women and men were thrown out of the Akal Takht by what they describe as "brute force." The incident came days after the SGPC delayed its decision on the how to implement women's seva at Darbar Sahib. Employees of the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) would not allow a group of seventy men and women to recite Sukhamani Sahib paat (prayer) at the Akal Takht. Fifteen of them were forcefully removed. The SGPC employees claimed that it was "against Akal Takht marayada." The Sukhmani Sahib paat was led by Mejindarpal Kaur, one of the two British Sikh women who was forcefully kept from doing Sukhasan seva at Darbar Sahib. Kaur has been working with the New York based human rights group Voices For Freedom (VFF) on the women's seva issue. "We had been doing Sukhmani Sahib at the Akal Takht since February without any problems, why did they not communicate this marayada to us earlier on?" she asked. Initially the SGPC employees (men and women) told the group that the marayada did not allow the group to do Ardaas when carrying an unsheathed kirpan, said Kaur. But when she agreed to their request, they told her that the group could not recite the paat either. When asked to produce the marayada that does not allow paat at the Akal Takht, they could not. The employees confiscated their Gutkas and physically removed them from the premises. "The women SGPC employees were very harsh [physically]," said Shubneet Kaur of Chandigarh who was with the group. Many have reported to have sustained injuries from the scuffle. Mejindarpal Kaur contacted SGPC President's Kirpal Singh's personal assistant Raghbir Singh who came and settled the incident with the group which was now seated outside the Akal Takht. Singh said that there was no objection to them doing Sukhmani Sahib and he had their Gutkas returned to them. A few days earlier, the five-member subcommittee set up in March by the SGPC's Dharam Parchar Committee failed to submit a written report on the women's seva issue which was due on May 15, 2003. The subcommittee was set up to find solutions for allowing women to participate in all seva at Darbar Sahib. A public meeting was called at Chandigarh on April15, 2003 and written opinions were invited from the public. The subcommittee had a further meeting on May 8, 2003, in Amristar, which was adjourned because all its members could not attend due to insufficient notice of the change of venue for the meeting. That is why the final report was not issued, said Darshan Singh, one of the subcommittee members. Darshan Singh told VFF that the date of the Seva committee's next meeting is not known because the Dharam Parchar Committee is responsible for calling meetings on behalf of the sub-committee. According to SikhNet, however, Darshan Singh said that the committee would meet on May 18, 2003, at Fatehgarh Sahib to prepare the final draft and it would be submitted to the SGPC within 15 days after the scheduled meeting. An official date for the report from the SGPC has not been released. This is troublesome, said Mejindarpal Kaur in a recent conversation. Some members of the subcommittee have remarked that they may be leaving for summer vacation. If they do, the report may be delayed indefinitely. Navkiran Singh, of VFF, has urged SGPC President Kirpal Singh to call an emergency meeting of the Dharam Parchar Committee to investigate the delay in producing a report on the Sikh women's equal right to undertake seva at Darbar Sahib. The decision on how to implement women's seva rights at Darbar Sahib has been outstanding since February, 2003, when two British Sikh women were forcefully prevented from participating in the Sukhasan seva. Sikh tenets do not allow any type of discrimination against
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