Narendra Modi and the Sikh relation: an email

I have been introduced to an email being sent out by Piyush Goyal, a minister of Indian Railways, to the Indians stating the relationship between the Sikhs and the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. This email doesn’t look like email spoofing. The email might have been sent out to calm down the protests by the farmers in the Northern India.

People (the rightwing trolls) have been sending out the messages on the social media platforms that the protests are of farmers, not Sikhs, even when majority of the farmers are Sikhs in those protests. But somehow their fragile attempts to disseminate this information have drastically failed. They were left with only one option: to state the Sikhs’ relations are good with the ruling party.

Others might argue that this attempt might have been made for the upcoming elections in Punjab as the political alliance between the BJP and SAD isn’t there anymore. The timing of sending out this email isn’t right though. If the BJP is planning to lure the Sikhs under their fold during the protests, then it is the most stupid thing that a political party will ever do, knowing majority of the Sikhs are against them because of the new agriculture laws, and the world leaders have taken a strong notice of this, even the UN. Although when the similar protests happen in their own countries, they would look the other way, including the Indians. That’s not the topic of this discussion.

The ministry definitely has the Sikh records. Was it sent out to all the Sikhs whose records they have? Or only few of them? They would definitely have sent it to few non-Sikhs as well, otherwise it would create a problem for them during cross-questioning, if the Indian media ask about it, which they never do anyway.

One thing that should be crystal clear to the BJP leadership is that they can’t win the hearts of the Sikhs with propaganda. Trolls are good for them, paid and brainwashed both. That doesn’t change the fact that they can’t affect the protesters and the protests. Secondly, the Hindu-Muslim or the Hindu-Sikh propaganda won’t work out in Punjab. This is the very first time when the BJP will be contesting the election in all the assembly constituencies of Punjab, unless they have an alliance in future. The things that worked out for them in the past in other Indian states won’t work in Punjab. Punjab’s politics is different. And they shouldn’t even consider that if they somehow take back the laws, they have the Sikh majority on their side for voting. No. Like I said, the Punjab politics is way more complex/different than what BJP knows. Nationalism, patriotism, Hindu-Muslim, Kashmir, Ram Mandir, etc., these are irrelevant topics for the Sikhs during elections. Although the BJP has won the elections on these points in the past in other non-Punjabi states.

I am sure the Sikhs are not going to make the same mistakes that they made in the past. The large groups of protesters will learn a thing or two out of this, and that may be helpful to understand the politics. They sure aren’t going to vote for the Congress and SAD. BJP has no chance without alliance. The one mistake that they’re going to make is to vote for the AAP.

Anyway, let me know if you are living in India and get this email and what you think of this mass-emailing to the Indians.

Punjabis, farmers, protests and drugs

I was thinking of writing this some time back and then watched a video of a Sikh intellectual and thought of sharing the same views here. People have propagated the drug issues in Punjab, that how it’s destroying the youth, and the Punjab is on the verge of a collapse. Not to mention a Bollywood movie depicting the same. The attempts have been made to put the Punjab youth to shame when it comes to drugs.

But the latest farmer protests have completely changed the narrative. We, the Punjabis, have shown the world that we are still same when you poke us with new laws which try to take away our liberty and identity. We did the same during the British Rule. We did the same during the Punjabi Soobha Morcha. We did the same in the Emergency and the Dharam Yudh Morcha. Now the time seems to be repeating where all the Punjabis (yes, you can read it as Sikhs, because majority of them there are Sikhs, and have been labelled as Khalistanis, because, well, who cares about logic and reasoning, and of course there are Hindus and Muslims as well, but they didn’t see that and called them, collectively, as Khalistanis. Hell we care.) are united once again on the same stage.

The agitation seems to be getting the support from across the other Indian states as well. What we really need is the unification of all the farmer groups and the individuals who know the politics and law to make sure we don’t get half-baked promises and assurances. The world leaders have also taken the notice of the protesting of the farmers. Let’s hope the Modi government would come to the senses and won’t use the force to disperse the protesters, or use the draconian laws and the army to keep the laws intact.