| Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 22 May 2017 | Asia Samachar
A pressure group has fired initial salvos in an attempt to overthrow the present leadership of Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC), largely on the premise that Jagir Singh and his team at the council are against the Dasam Granth (DG).
On 13 May 2017, a meeting was held at Gurdwara Sahib Pusing, Perak, to drum up support from the 42 gurdwaras in the state, with one of their leaders calling the MGC elected head a ‘kaminaa’ in his speech in the darbar sahib.
Former granthi Lakhbir Singh and Paramjeet Singh from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Academy (SGGS Academy) were among those who gave speeches. However, it is understood that less than half a dozen gurdwaras were represented at the meeting.
“Let me blunt. Jagir Singh is a kaminaa,” said Lakhbir, who told the audience that he had served as a granthi in the state for three years ago many years ago.
“It won’t be long before they will want to exclude from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib the raag mala, baanis of the bhagat and the sevaiyaa of the Bhatt,” he added.
In the same talk, Lakhbir also labeled Dr Karminder Singh – a senior Malaysian civil servant who has given numerous talks on Sikhi, including on stages organised by the MGC – as ‘dhusman’ (enemy).
Kaminaa can mean, among other things, rascal, menial, sordid, unworthy, villainous or disgraceful. A possible origin for the word is Farsi carrying the meaning of ‘minumum’, according to an entry at Quora.com. The word was used for the low-caste Muslims who were mostly the converts from the Shudra and Dalit Hindu castes.
Some parties who spoke to Asia Samachar have questioned the accuracy of some of the statements made by the group, including allegations that the MGC will some day remove bani from the Sikh scripture.
On its part, MGC has called an emergency general meeting (EGM) on this Saturday (27 May 2017).
“The EGM is to allow members ot discuss the latest developments. It’s a closed-door meeting,” Jagir told Asia Samachar.
In a separate development, MGC today released a letter denouncing a pamphlet, that has been widely distributed, as making ‘completely false’ allegations against the MGC leaders, including that they intend to ban the reading Benti-Chaupi and singing ‘Deh Shiva Bar Moheh’. [Letter will be uploaded shortly].
The latest series of meetings to overthrow the MGC leadership seems to be a response to the string of the council’s programmes to promote the slogan ‘Ek Granth, Ek Panth, Ek Maryada’, meant to rally Sikh organisations, gurdwaras and individuals towards the SGGS.
While the MGC intends to underline the role of SGGS for the Sikhs, certain groups have taken the ‘Ek Granth’ series as an attempt to sidestep the Dasam Granth and other writings of Guru Gobind Singh.
Some quarters accept DG, a collection of work earlier known as Bachitar Natak (BN), as the complete writings of the Tenth Sikh Guru, while some groups challenge the authenticity of the claim.
[ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs in Southeast Asia and surrounding countries. We have a Facebook page, do give it a LIKE! Visit our website: www.asiasamachar.com]
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