The political situation in the Punjab is very fluid. It is by no means certain that the Akalis are poised to be propelled into political power. Prakash Singh Badal has been preparing to hand over the reigns of the Akali Dal to his only son. This passing on of the sceptre to the next generation is important to him for he, in his own estimation, is the founder of a brand new dynasty. With the Sikh voter abandoning him for his blatant betrayal of the panth, he has become more conscious of his position as essentially a Hindu leader. He knows that the Hindus are shrewd and will support him in direct proportion to his actual distancing himself from the Sikh people. He retains the blue turban, the beard and the Sikh slogans just to entice the gullible portion of the Sikh voter. His real effort is to convince the Hindus not only that he is a real Hindu but also that he wishes to be known as a totally anti-Sikh person who is equipped with the intense desire to destroy Sikhi root and branch. He appears to feel that this is the only way he can secure Hindu votes in the coming elections.

This exercise has been on for a long time. His assumption of his present incarnation has ostensibly been a gradual affair with marked phases. His alliance with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) the extreme rightwing Hindu political party was the first step. In the Akali Dal’s Moga Conference in 1996, he abandoned the political programme of the Akali Dal in a neat seemingly innocuous manoeuvre calculated to offer no pronounced offence. Overnight the Akali Dal converted itself into a Punjabi Party with an extra special soft corner for the Hindus and Hindu proclivities. During his last stint as chief minister, he abandoned all Sikh form and norms to make it clear to the BJP how loyal a servant he had become. He and his wife made frequent visits to the establishment of anti-Sikh pseudo-religious preceptors, freely offered prayers at Hindu shrines and so on. In public life he scrupulously avoided Sikh causes, defied the Sikh Code of Conduct and went to the extent of offering public insults to Guru Granth Sahib to assure the BJP that he had turned over a new leaf. His mounting the vehicle carrying Guru Granth Sahib on the occasion of the 400th centenary of its completion was a cold calculated manoeuvre to demonstrate more than irreverence.

His greatest achievement however, was the appointment of Joginder Singh Vedanti to head the Akal Takhat. He was given the task of actually dragging the Sikh panth into the fold of the Hinduism. The procedure has been long thought of and the plan has a long history. The perfect executioner had now been discovered in the person of Vedanti. He succumbed to his now well known passion for money. (Some time back, Sudarshan of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) claimed at New Jersey that all the Sikh “High Priests,” inclusive of Vedanti are in the pay of his organisation. This statement has been published in the in the daily Press and in the prestigious magazine Sikh Virsa again and again, including the November 2006 issue, but has failed draw any reply or explanation from Vedanti).

The Hindu plan to drag the Sikhs back to the Hindu fold has been simple. It aims at replacing the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib with the dasamgranth authorship of which is being thrust upon Guru Gobind Singh. Except for a very small portion of it, it is a literature of the shakat sect of Shaivism. Dark skinned Shiva, it is well known is the god provided by the Aryan conquerors to the enslaved indigenous population. The purpose of his invention was to retain the indigenous people as willing slaves for ever. He is represented as a drug addict and as a sexually indulgent god. His exploits in the Kanan forest where he is shown as raping the wives of the learned rishis, is described in detail in a Hindu scripture. His spouse is the famous Black Goddess. She is depicted as a very efficient slayer of demons.

She is fond of human blood and thuggee which was banned by William Bentinck was a ritual calculated the keep the Black Goddess supplied with human blood. It involved enticing trusting rich travellers and offering their blood to the goddess as a sacrifice. Shiva and Kali’s followers are represented as worshipping the genitals (the lingam and the yoni) of their god and goddess. This practise continues to this day and at thousands of temples in India and abroad the worship continues. Shiva is described as a god of serpents, nether beings, demons and ghosts and all such beings. Several of the sects owing allegiance to him are represented as having deviant social and sexual behaviour. They use drinking sessions, cannibalism and sexual indulgence as religious rituals to facilitate the achievement of summum bonum.

Followers belonging to the Aghori sect eat human flesh as a religious ritual (one case came up in November 2006 in Ropar district in which a follower killed his spiritual master, roasted his flesh and ate it. This was described by the police as an execution of a religious ritual by a member of the Aghori sect. Giani Gian Singh, famous author of the Panth Prakash, has recorded meeting saints of this sect during his travels in India.) The choli sect is well known for worshipping by sexual indulgence. They go to a place of worship and after drinking alcohol and eating fish, indulge in the main ritual copulation. This involves placing the choli or the blouse of every woman present in the gathering in an earthen pot. Men present there then pull out a garment each. Thus the sexual partners are paired for the ritual sex act. The deed is done even if a chance pair happens to be brother and sister or even mother and son. This is considered a very holy act.

Shakats worship Shiva in his most potent (uggar) form of Mahakaal and the Mahakali in her most war-like form of Chandi or Durga. They worship weapons also. Most of the dasamgranth describes sex acts, is full of deviant and even bizarre sexual behaviour which includes sodomy and worse. Indulgence in drugs is recommended by it and at places it is stated that he who does not take drugs must be regarded as fool and a simpleton who misses out on the most important aspect that life has to offer. The dasamgranth is clearly a scripture of the Shakat sect. It has been a long standing Hindu desire to bring the Sikhs under the umbrella of the Shakat sect. This involves getting them to accept some of the rituals of that sect as modes of worship. It is their theory that the Tenth Guru was different form the previous Nanaks before him and he had effectively converted the Sikhs into a sub-sect of the Shakats. As evidence they cite the dasamgranth (actual name bachittarnatakgranth) and ascribe its authorship to the Guru although the names of authors of the compositions are mostly mentioned in the text as was the custom of the age. The rest of the writings are anonymous and not ascribable to anyone in particular.

To propagate the dasamgranth as Sikh scripture at par with Guru Granth, has been the aim of a section of the Hindu zealots and a section of the Media mostly controlled by such Hindus. Many ever obliging Sikhs such as S. S. Dhanoa, Mahip Singh and Jodh Singh have teamed up with them. For many years a sustained campaign in favour describing the dasamgranth as a Sikh scripture has been carried on in the Media. However, a determined minority (who incidentally are the only people who have read the book) have been opposing the move and resisting attempts at equating the Shakat literature with the Sikh scripture. With the coming of Badal in his most destructive form as political leader and the emergence of Vedanti as the most efficient executioner of genuine Sikh doctrines and their receiving the patronage of the BJP and the RSS, it has been made possible to publicly show the same reverence to this book of ill-repute as is shown to the Guru Granth. The following is written in the above context and in the hope that the Sikhs will rise like one man to defeat the nefarious design of the enemies of the panth. At the Wadda Ghallughara they had prayed to the Guru to save them from total destruction so that they could for ever defend the message of his Granth. The Guru did his bit and the panth emerged more vigorous from the holocaust. They ascended to many thrones in North India and are around. It is now their turn to fulfill the promise of preserving the unique message that has the potential of spiritually elevating the entire humankind.

It was noticed even in 2000 that the Akal Takhat head Joginder Singh Vedanti was holding ring for the supporters of the dasamgranth.
Whenever there was a debate regarding its authorship and authenticity, he interfered only when the supporters of the proposition that it was the Guru¹s creation were found fumbling for answers. Elsewhere the author of this article has recorded all such occasions.

The Institute of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh (IOSS) was controlled by a right minded, pro-Sikh group of members once again in the year 2000.
On February 3, 2000, the IOSS held a conclave of some sixty scholars to deliberate upon the question of authorship of the dasamgranth and upon its status as literature relevant to Sikhi. It adopted its resolution (numbered 3) embodying the consensus arrived at by the assembled scholars. (The resolution is reproduced at Appendix A). This started a full fledged debate in the local Media.

On May 14, 2000, Joginder Singh Vedanti misused the forum of the Akal Takhat [Supreme Seat of Sikh Polity] and sponsored a meeting he called a “religious gathering.” Significantly, this gathering too adopted a resolution and numbered it 3. It forbade all discussion on the subject of the dasamgranth. The local Media gave wide publicity to it. Just then Virsa Singh of Gobind Sadan, Delhi and Shiv Sadan Garhganga, started giving wide publicity to his reproduction of the dasamgranth which he had published ostensibly on April 13, 1999. It is a five volume reproduction complete with annotations. The significance of the date cannot be missed. It was celebrated the world over by the Khalsa as the third centenary of the first formation of the Order of the Khalsa by the Tenth King and the promulgation of the edict constituting code of conduct for the Khalsa. He started sending it to Sikh homes in India and abroad in a big way. It was rumoured that this publication and activity was sponsored by the RSS out of the 50 crores of rupees it had received from the government of India for celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of the Khalsa.

On June 17, 2000, two articles, one by S. S. Dhanoa and another by Gurbhagat Singh appeared in The Tribune. These were published very prominently, being the only two articles on the first page of the magazine section of the paper for the day. There was a somewhat artistic picture of the Tenth Guru and an image of the Takat Keshgarh Sahib was also displayed on the page. The idea conveyed was that the entire dasamgranth was authored by the Guru and that its teachings were theologically in perfect accord with the teachings of the previous Gurus. This was not only factually wrong but also had a sinister import.

On June 21, 2000, Gurtej Singh wrote an article expounding the contrary point of view. The same day it was sent to The Tribune for publication. It would not publish it despite persistent reminders. The Board of Trustees was approached. After its intervention, the editor conveyed to Gurtej Singh that the article was too long and he would have it abridged and published. Gurtej Singh smelt a rat and offered to reduce it in size himself. That is what he did. Within the next twenty-four hours, the abridged article was in the hands of the editor. He had no intention of publishing it and did not do so.

Gurtej Singh did not relent. He kept on pursuing the matter. Eventually, editor of the Punjabi Tribune in obvious consultation with the English counterpart, offered to publish a translation of the article in Punjabi. This was done on July 30, 2000 under the heading Guru Granth da shareek usaran di sazish. The basic theme was that an attempt was being made to put up a spurious compilation as the pretender Guru. This revived the debate albeit to a limited extent. This was the situation which nobody wanted to face; least of all, Joginder Singh Vedanti and those who backed him. So promptly on August 7, 2000, came Vedanti¹s Press Note. Like the one before it, it forbade any debate on the issue of the dasamgranth. It also promised that the SGPC would constitute a special committee so that an “internal resolution” of the serious matter may be attempted. The implication was that the subject of authorship, nature and content of the book in question would be sorted out by that committee.

This intervention by Vedanti was used by The Tribune in support of not publishing Gurtej Singh¹s article in English. It also helped Dhanoa and Gurbhagat Singh’s writing to retain some respectability in the eyes of the English reader of the paper. Lastly it doused the healthy discussion on the subject. Some interpreted Vedanti¹s letter as camouflaged attempt to lend support to Dhanoa and Gurbhagat Singh.

There the matter rested. There it rests until the time of writing. No committee was formed. That is how seriously the so-called high priests take themselves. Now, instead, Vedanti has promised to constitute a committee of “various intellectuals” to give amicable answers to “unscrupulous persons.” The implications of the move cannot be lightly dismissed. The five puppets of Badal who are perceived to be simultaneously in the pay of the ultra Hindu RSS and who are described by The Tribune as “high priests,” have accepted the dasamgranth as their scripture. They have also indicated that they believe it to have been authored by the Tenth Guru in its entirety. Except for about 60 pages ascribable to the Guru, this book is mostly hard pornography and mythical mumbo-jumbo as we have seen above. Vedanti and hisfifth columnist cohorts believe they have finally thrust this book upon Sikh theological world as an authoritative scripture. In their wild imagination they have launched an alternate Guru. There is no doubt that this is what they think they have brought about.

On November 26, 2006, the five ”high priests” met at Amritsar and decided to ban burning of effigies near “parkash asthans” as they called them. The Press briefing was on an entirely different matter. This has been the cloak and dagger method of functioning of the priesthood in all ages and climes.
While briefing the Press, Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, said that “certain unscrupulous persons were spreading false propaganda about Dasham Granth through the Media. He said the five High Priests had decided that various intellectuals devoted to true Sikhism would give amicable answers to such “unscrupulous persons by giving them historical facts.” (See, The Tribune, November 28, 2006, 5). Read alone, this statement appears to be almost innocuous. The catch however lies in interpreting the words like “true Sikhism” and “certain unscrupulous persons” in the context of what has happened in the recent past.

On November 11, 12 and 13, 2006, certain organizations under the name of the Fateh Divas Shatabdi Committee, decided to celebrate Fateh Divas or ‘Victory Day’ at the Gurdwara named as “Gurdwara Zafarnamah Sahib” near village Dialpura Bhaika in Bhatinda district. (The Zafarnamah was written by the Guru at Dina Kangar). It dedicated the celebrations to the dasamgranth. The earlier idea was to celebrate the imaginary 300th anniversary of the completion of the dasamgranth. This was later camouflaged to the present form. Even under the camouflage, this constituted the most sinister move in all Sikh history. It was an attempt to give recognition to the shakat compilation called the dasamgranth as authentic Sikh scripture composed by the Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. Notice for the event in the form of very attractive paid advertisements, complete with a picture of the Tenth Guru writing the Zafarnamah, were printed in several daily papers and magazines. One such advertisement may be seen at the back of the monthly Punjabi magazine Amrit Khandedhaar for the month of November 2006. The advertisers proposed to hold akhandpath or continuous reading of Guru Granth Sahib and the dasamgranth at the same venue and to conclude it on the same day. Thisconstituted a sacrilege which has no parallel in Sikh history.

On November 11, 2006, a newly formed organization Tat Grmat Taksal issued an advertisement in one local daily to announce that it would be holding protest meeting on the 13th of November and that it designates the day as the blackest day in Sikh history. Both the events took place as scheduled.
Tat Gurmat Taksal held its function at the Gurdwara Sector 46, Chandigarh. The one at Dialpura Bhaika was attended by all the heads of the five Takhats, Baba Sarabjot Singh Bedi and Avtar Singh president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. That was in spite of the fact that all these persons were contacted on phone by Sikhs from different places and requested not to go to a place where Guru Granth was being denigrated. On November 10, 2006, Joginder Singh Vedanti went to address a religious gathering at Faridabad. There five respected Sikhs belonging to the local congregation, amongst them was a lady, sought time to speak to him. They intended to request him to avoid attending the Dialpura function. He said he was in hurry so they spoke to him while he was walking down to his vehicle. In response he asked his bodyguards to “shut their mouths.” The body guards fell upon the unarmed elderly Sikhs and a woman and beat them up with sticks.

At Dialpura Bhaika, Vedanti was reported as having said that the entire dasamgranth was the composition of the Tenth Guru which is the lowest he could stoop. (See the Punjabi Tribune for November 14, 2006) The opposite view was projected at Sector 46 Gurdwara at Chandigarh.
The congregation adopted resolutions to that effect. Concerned Sikhs of Delhi belonging mainly to the India Awareness magazine group held a public meeting at Delhi on the 19th of November 2006. Some people from Chandigarh went to participate in the meeting there. Similar sentiments as had been expressed at Chandigarh were expressed there by the gathering there. Placed in the above context, the people Vedanti referred to as “unscrupulous persons spreading false propaganda” are those who are trying to tell the people that the so-called dasamgranth is a compilation of Shakat literature and Vedanti’s attempt at foisting the book on the Sikh panth amounts to turning the Khalsa into a sub-sect of the Mahakaal worshipping Shakats roughly equal in status to the Aghoripanth and the Cholipanth both of which enjoy full sexual licence and the former practises cannibalism. Both regard cannibalism and sexual licence as religious rituals efficient in obtaining moksha or final release. This is Vedanti¹s “true Sikhism.” Now he plans to form a body of “devoted intellectuals” who will “give amicable answers to such unscrupulous persons.”

It is unfortunate that this incident of mid November has happened at Dialpura Bhaika. It should be the effort of the present generation to wipe clean the stigma of tolerating the sacrilege. This can most efficiently be done by vigorously spreading exact knowledge of the bani of Guru Granth Sahib, the rahit of amrit and the Khalsa tradition. This can best be done by careful reading of Sahib Singh¹s commentary. The reading of the so-called dasamgranth should also be encouraged so that the people in general are able to see the enormity of the event and to gauge the disastrous consequences if the farce perpetrated by the “high priests” is not exposed. The urgency of so doing would be obvious to all thinking Sikhs devoted to the Guru. The perpetrators of the crime must be thoroughly exposed by holding seminars and awareness sessions wherever there is a substantial Sikh population. Every Sikh must feel himself duty bound to give at least one reading to the dasamgranth so that the issue can be understood in its context. For this purpose the cheapest and the most effective book that can be used is the five volume compilation published by Virsa Singh of the Gobind Sadan at Delhi and of the Shiv Sadan at Garhganga. (Does anyone see the significance of the establishments of one head Virsa Singh, having two different names?) [File Code: Coup Implications, December 4, 2006: Folder dasamgranth]

Appendix: Resolution Number 3 – On the Status of the dasamgranth

Of late determined attempts are being made by the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh to get the Sikhs to accept the text of the so-called Dasam Granth as authentic interpretation of Sikhism by the Tenth Guru. Except for the plausible bani of the Guru included in it, sakat, vaishnav and brahmanical scholars have composed the rest of the dasamgranth. It is clear that this is done with a sinister design to mislead the Sikhs and to derail Sikhi. Eversince its compilation, this book has been controversial. Enlightened Sikhs have been clear that the whole of it is neither scripture nor canon and that except for the Guru’s writings included in it, has no relevance to Sikh thought or doctrine. Because of the name dasamgranth, cleverly conferred upon it, it has stolen a place amongst the hearts of the unsuspecting unthinking Sikhs to whom it is projected as composition of the Tenth King.
Sikh intellectuals and leaders of faith have failed to correct the aberration so far. In the last decade, however, there is a spate of books exposing the nature of writings it contains.

The leaders of antagonistic faiths and social orders have adopted this book in a big way and are using it as a lever to destroy the wholly pure, noble and gloriously elevating image of the Tenth King and thus also the integrity of the Sikh faith. This is the approach of the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh and their allies, that are seeking to establish `Hindu Pad Padshahi’ in place of the present set up in India.

It is high time that we woke up to the situation. We must clearly accept that except for the genuine bani of the Tenth Guru, contents of this book are highly repugnant to doctrines of the Sikh faith and the practise of Sikhi, where these are not also pornographic trash. This gathering therefore, calls upon the Sikhs everywhere to express unwavering faith in Guru Granth Sahib as the only living Guru of the Sikhs, as the only scripture and to reject the so-called dasamgranth as totally irrelevant to Sikh thought, doctrine, faith or practise.

This gathering calls upon the Guru Khalsa Panth to take this firm decision in the 300th year of the creation of the Order of the Khalsa.
To the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh and their privar, we have just this to say that their crude and uncouth attempts at ostensibly gaining Sikh sympathy are likely to boomerang and eventually lead to alienation of the Sikhs in a big way. We call upon them to desist from false propaganda regarding the `dasamgranth.’ Their persistence in the blasphemy is becoming more and more offensive. We may also remind them that the Badal and Mann Dals of Akalis, along with a few more time-servers, may have accepted to become accomplices in their private quest for the crumbs of political power. Rest of the Sikhs have not done so and will reject them with contempt amply invited by their status of collaborators.