Re: Social Problems in Punjab and their Strategic Impact
Posted: 08 Jan 2016 08:36
another news report..A bit loud in tone but very accurate
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I have a cousin, her and her husband have just converted to xtianity in London.sanjaykumar wrote:Christian brain washing activity can't surely be successful against Sikhs in general. Or does he mean Mazhabis?I once asked a Sikh doctor to spread the facts of alcohol and drug abuse among his community as he was ideally placed to do so.His reply was "they don't heed the Gurus, do you think they will listen to me?"
A depressing, albeit interesting, read.
SBajwa wrote:Try ever traveling Amritar to Lahore, Ferozepur to Kasur, Gurdaspur to Sialkote. Not only it is totally flat it slopes down towards "Lahinda Punjab" aka "Where Sun sets down" as oppose to "Chardha Punjab" " where sun rises" . Except for the barbed wire on International border.Vikas wrote:Why Sikhs should carry the burden of establishing 'Khalsa empire'. It should be project for whole of Bharat and the right person to lead this charge is already on the job.
Punjab division looks so artificial. If you ever are on a Intl flight crossing over from Pakjab to Indian Punjab, you would be hard pressed to find any natural boundary lines. If we don't get back land upto Sindhu back in India in next few decades, It will be lost forever like Afghan and Burma.
Jat Sikhs are 40-50% of the Sikh population in Punjab and control agriculture, industry, transportation, police, Sikhism and politics.Sbajwa Ji: What is the %age of Jutt Sikh in Pnnjab as a ratio of total Sikh population and why Non-Jutt Sikh haven't risen up to demand their share in the pie of religious affairs yet especially knowing that access to real power is one of the major aspirational goal of most of the communities in India. Is this another of the fault lines that some BIF can easily exploit at the right time ?
The non-Jutt Sikhs are mostly outside of Punjab and in control of historical Gurudaras in Delhi (Delhi Gurdwara Prabhandak committee), Nanded and Patna Gurudwaras. non-historical Gururdwaras all over rest of india are also controlled by non-Jutts.
Sandeep, Going back from the first post is the trifecta of cheap and plentiful Farm Inputs, MSP, and mandi ecosytem an economical drug system?Ratan Sharda
By all accounts, it is slowly emerging that the opposition to new Farm Laws comes from Punjab and parts of Haryana. As per reports from other states, response of farmers and farmer organisations there, it seems that overwhelming majority of farmers want to move out of the clutches of APMC or Mandis controlled by politicians or their agents. The survey today by Network18 also shows this trend. Many experts have already written about major government procurement of wheat and paddy being done only from Punjab though there are larger producers of wheat and paddy outside these states. I will not get into historicity of this situation. It is clear that farmers of Punjab are major beneficiaries subsidies, MSP and guaranteed pick of their produce, whatever the quality or cost. So, they have an interest in status quo. I challenge below the very idea of sticking to the status quo.
Enough has been said for and against the new bills. I start this analysis by putting my faith in the anti-Farm Bills lobby. So, let us assume that understanding the strong sentiments of the Punjab, farmers government repeals the new Farm Laws. What next?
I am a Punjabi who was born in Mumbai but whose father was so attached to his roots that he would take us to our village every year in the hot summers due to school holiday season. Yes, we enjoyed winter when everything was bountiful. So, I have witnessed the rise in economic well being and wonderful joyous atmosphere in the village and the adjoining mandi Moga, the biggest mandi (grain market) after Khanna in Punjab. They are supposed be the biggest in Asia. My village is 9 km from Moga. I have also seen the decline and greying of once colourful atmosphere of Punjab. I was in and out of Punjab during the entire period of Khalistan related terrorism and have seen the grim fight to stay together despite high decibel violent campaigns to terrorise and throw out Hindus, and silence Sikhs who opposed their ideology.
I give this background to take this as a test case of development of Punjab and what has gone wrong with this once vibrant state. We witnessed kacha roads converted to brick roads by shramdan of villagers, school boys and girls with government offering road building material. I recall our car getting stuck in sand on way to village, taking bullock cart, going by camel, later by cycle to reach my village. Later, we had famous Matador Tempos that we would ride hanging onto them like bananas. Buses came much later. We saw power coming to village, we saw Nestle coming (its first dairy and milk procurement began in Moga) and also the Green Revolution that saw sand dunes in our areas converted to lush green fields. We literally saw prosperity arriving in our villages. We also saw our dear neighbours move to Hanumangarh (near Sri Ganga Nagar) and later some move even to Madhya Pradesh for bigger holdings and better incomes.
The farming patterns changed during Green Revolution with easy availability of irrigation facilities. Crops that gave guaranteed income with government support, with subsidised fertilisers, powerand water coupled with MSP became predominant crops in an area that was not basically suitable for those crops. Rice was so alien to the local culture that if you asked for rice they would assume it to be sweetened rice as a dessert or a special treat! One would get it hardly once in a fortnight if one stayed long enough. These farming practices went well till the water levels went down precariously and more and more chemicals – fertilisers as well as pesticides - were needed to produce more of paddy and wheat. Slowly, farming became very demanding and much difficult to pursue at a heavy cost to farmer in terms of health and hard work. There would be accidents where a farmer and his labour would get buried inside the deep bore well being dug as water tables dropped. Pesticides related diseases began to rise. As prosperity increased, new generation didn’t find labouring in farms very attractive. So, we saw the influx of ‘Biharis’ who not just did labour on the field, but slowly took over jobs like rickshaw drivers. Unfortunately, they were not given due respect or dignity but poverty made them work and earn better than they would ever do in Bihar. We know of overflowing Shramik Expresses etc. The compulsion of influx of Biharis has changed the demographics of these towns and cities. Over years many Biharis have become Sikhs and adopted Punjabi like all intelligent migrants to integrate well.
During this time, the urge to go ‘baahar’ (overseas) became so strong that it became a kind of wave that never weakened and took the form of a compulsive behaviour. From one district in Jalandhar where every home had a person who had gone to England, Canada, or smuggled into Europe; this rage struck entire Punjab. An NRI in shiny clothes and jackets boasting about his life (no matter, he would be doing some menial job there) would attract more. To give an instance, a cousin of mine got married to a girl from neighbouring village (in Punjab) in Canada 18 years back. There were 13 boys and girls in the wedding from our village that has a population of a few thousands! This craze has gone to such an extent that lands are sold or mortgaged and loans taken somehow to escape the dreary life of Punjab. I know of cases where some returned as they couldn’t settle there or were sent back, caught by immigration authorities, ending up in broken families, druggies or committing suicide. Embarrassing stories of girls marrying old men and vice a versa, boys marrying ‘mems’ (local white women) to ‘settle’ there and divorce them later are common. There are enough stories of cheating in NRI weddings, for which a law had to be enacted.
Once joyful, abusively humorous villages and towns have become greying dull places. Youthful verve is missing. I have seen Moga since my childhood. I have stayed there with my close relatives. A mandi having turnover of hundreds of crores has seen no improvement in quality of life. It is stuck in time warp with more and more narrow lanes, cheek by jowl homes and bad roads. If you enter the mandi, you are stuck by never changing environment in decades. So, where are the ‘mandi fee’ and other charges going? Same can be said of other mandis too. Where is infrastructure? Why grains rot in the open for decades? Where are warehouses and cold storages?
On one side there is a huge social issue that nearly every young boy or girl wants to go ‘baahar’ at huge social and economic cost. My nephew, a young headmaster, tells despairingly that even top scorers in high school show no inclination to stay in Punjab for higher education and work in governance or create enterprise. The most productive farmlands near cities and towns are being converted to ‘Banquet halls’, restaurants, showrooms etc as it is more lucrative and involves no back breaking work. Many are owned by NRIs who have lands but have no use for them. On the other side are the worsening farm conditions. Though there has been lot of talk of ‘Udta Punjab’ during elections, no ruling party ever tried to destroy the mafia running these drug rings. It is destroying youth who fail to escape Punjab. There is bigger critical issue of thousands of farmers suffering from cancer and other deadly diseases due to excessive spraying of pesticides. There are cancer trains running from Bhatinda to Bikaner regularly. No politicians worth his/her salt has talked about it or tried to find a solution. Forget solution, why should a rich state not create health facilities so its citizens don’t have to go all the way to Rajasthan to get cured?
It is acknowledged now that the crops being sown in Punjab are not suitable for its soil. Excess use of water, fertilisers and pesticides are turning them into saline lands. While our Punjabi farmers in California have gone for drip irrigation, their families here don’t. Probably because water is free. To farming productive more of chemicals are being used. It’s a vicious downward spiral. Has any politicians or farmer agitating in Delhi talked about it or tried to find solution? Introduction of contract farming was done in Punjab much earlier than other states. It was an attempt to find the solution to obvious downward trend in farm incomes.
Therefore, suppose Modi ji repeals the Farms Bills, will it solve Punjab’s problems? Obviously, the farm bill has taken into account all these social and economic issues and it is a bold move to break away from this vicious cycle. We can’t change the situation by repeating old ideas. But, if we feel insecure with changes and wish to stick to old socialist dogmas, what solutions do the critics have to offer to the real problems of Punjab? Farm Bills are a wake up call for the people of Punjab. Societies thrive that adopt to change, those who refuse to rise to challenges, decay. Will our Punjab leaders recognise the degeneration of once truly hansta-khelta Punjab, arrest its decline and bring those joyous laughters back?
“There is no such thing as a crisis in agriculture.”
Meet Darshan Singh Sanghera, vice president of Punjab’s powerful Arhtiyas Association. And boss of its Barnala district chapter. Arhtiyas are commission agents, a link between farmers and buyers of their produce. They arrange for the auction and delivery of harvested crop to the buyers. They are also moneylenders with a long history in that trade. In recent years, they’ve emerged as input dealers as well. All of which means they wield great control over farmers in this state.
The arhtiyas are also politically powerful. They count members of the legislative assembly amongst their brethren. In July last year, they honoured Chief Minister Amarinder Singh with the title of ‘Fakhr-e-Quam’ (‘Pride of the Community’). Local media termed the event “a mega felicitation function.” It came soon after the chief minister had said it would be difficult to waive off the debt owed by farmers to the arhtiyas.
As many as 86 per cent of farmer and 80 per cent of agricultural labour households are mired in debt, says a study on Indebtedness among Farmers and Agricultural Labourers in Rural Punjab. Its authors, researchers at Punjabi University, Patiala, say over a fifth of that debt was owed to commission agents and moneylenders. What’s more, the debt burden gets worse down the scale. It’s heaviest amongst marginal and small farmers. The study covered 1007 farmer and 301 agricultural labour households. Its field surveys in 2014-15 were spread across all regions of the state. Other studies too speak of deepening debt and mounting misery.
Darshan Singh Sanghera dismisses agrarian distress as “all due to the spending habits of the farmer. That is what lands them in trouble,” he says firmly. “We help them with money to buy inputs. Also, when they have weddings, medical and other expenses. When the farmer’s harvest is ready, he brings it and gives it to an ahrtiya. We clean the crop, bag it, deal with the government, the banks, the market.” The government pays the agents 2.5 per cent of the value of total procurement of wheat and paddy. The official side of their activity is governed by the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board. The farmers receive their payment through these commission agents. And all this is apart from the income the arhtiyas derive from moneylending.
Several Hindu organizations in Punjab’s Jagraon staged a protest on Monday demanding the arrest of Jaspal Singh Heran, the chief editor of a Punjabi daily Rozana Pehredar, for using objectionable language against Hindu gods and goddesses through his newspaper and social media platforms.
However, the situation got tensed after as many as 20 Sikh organizations from all over Punjab came out in support of Heran. They too held a demonstration outside SSP’s office demanding the FIR against Heran be quashed. At that time the Hindu organizations were protesting at a railway bridge and were stopped from moving ahead fearing clashes between the two groups.
Expect more demands for asylum in Canada, UK citing Hindu retaliation to these provocations.In another incident, some Sikh men had reportedly disrupted the Ramleela event organised by the Sanatan Dharm Ramleela committee in Rupnagar, Punjab on Saturday night.
As per reports, the Ramleela was underway when some Sikh men arrived with sticks and started abusing Hindu Gods, the organisers and created a nuisance. Chief Director Rakesh Sehgal and President of the committee Manohar Lal Kapoor had informed Jagran that the committee members tried to pacify the Sikh group but they refused to budge and continued their tirade.
The Sikh men reportedly accused the committee of being ‘BJP supporters’ and continued their rant against Hindu Gods, including Lord Ram, deeply hurting the devotees present. Due to their threats and nuisance, the Ramleela event was stopped for several hours.
The event organisers have stated that despite complaints, police had not taken any strong steps against the goons.
Isn't trash supposed to be outside, not inside the house?sanjaykumar wrote:More demands for asylum in Canada?
I don’t think their genius is suitable for Canada. White flight from Brampton and Surrey is not all racism.
Please keep them in Panjab.
In the 70-80s there was a political contest between CONg and Akali Dal in Punjab
On every issue, whether water sharing, state budget, earlier division of Punjab, then revenue/asset sharing between Punjab and Haryana (another botched state division courtesy CONg), ownership of the capital Chandigarh (Center had to make it a UT to prevent constant fighting), on every issue, both CONg and Akali Dal raised increasingly shriller and religious polarizing voices into the argument.
Both were positioning themselves as the saviours of the Sikhs.
Both are guilty of poisoning the people’s minds and creating a narrative of Sikh vs the rest
Then CONg propped up Bhindranwale to take on Akali Dal on the religious turf because Akali Dal had/has a hold on SGPC. SGPC controls all gurudwaras and subtle political messaging is possible in favour of the Akali Dal
Why Bhindranwale? He was the head of the Damdami Taksal, a religious seminary near Moga (south of Jalandhar), and was involved in a drive against alcohol and drugs (afeem/marijuana, in those days). That movement had a good reputation and gave him visibility in both rural and urban elite in punjab. His real name is Jernail Singh Brar - a jutt sikh. He changed it to Bhindrawale to denote that he was from Bhindra village, where the Damdami Taksal is located. His wife went to live there, after he died in 1984.
Paqistan was way stronger in the 70-80s, flush with funds, the backing of the west and the blue-eyed buoy. Between Zulfikar Bhutto and Hamid Gul, and later Zia, they started arms training in Paqistani Punjab.
The result was, beadbi incidents in gurudwaras ( which peak in the run-up to state elections - why, no one knows? ), target killing of police officers, bank robberies, random bomb blasts, bombs disguised as toys in bus & train stations, targeted killing of Hindus in state transport buses
CONg only wanted polarization, some rioting etc to bolster election chances against the Akali Dal in Punjab. They were positioning themselves as saviours of Sikh in Punjab, and saviours of Hindus in Haryana!
When terrorism reached its peak, and their trump card became too big and no longer in their control, and Punjab was under curfew for most days a year, the geniuses decided to do Bluestar. I suspect the calculation was that the CONg will lose Punjab, but the polarization will give electoral gains in the rest of the nation. And then public memory is short and media is under their thumb so things will be managed very soon.
Punjab is the most militarized state in India. There is an army cantonment every 20 km. There are tanks and artillery visible in every corner of the state. Because of the flat terrain, it is the main launch point of military ops against Paqistan. CONg badly bungled the politics, sowed seeds of religious polarization and destabilized the entire area from Punjab to J&K to Haryana to northern UP(now Uttarakhand) and Delhi
So a CONg mukt ( & pAAP mukt) bharat is a need of the hour. pAAP is CONg 2.0, & pappu-ji’s new goal in life is to end CONg and transfer power to pAAP, and retire in england with biwi-bacche.
Check Twitter for those pictures.
@ByRakeshSimha:
A Hindu family donated Rs 11 crore to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. Then these Delhi gurudwaras put up signs, saying cancel CAA and NRC. They also say: "Bhooke log aajate hain khana khane." (These greedy Hindus have no self respect. They come to eat at our free langar.")
Haresh wrote:khalistan is a jat movement, bare in mind that something like 30 % of the pop of Punjab is Ravidassi/Dalit and it is the Jats who are their main oppressors.vmalik wrote:
Risk of mutiny if/when GOI steps in stop the violence in Punjab. And I've stopped caring about any so called dharmic unity.
If you are worried about the Jat Sikh troops loyalties, then just recruit more from the dalit Ravidassi community. Same with Police officers.
I have been to Canada 9 times and this rivalry is present there as well. The Jats basically try to bullly and coerce the other castes. There is no support for khalistan amongst the Ramgaria and Ravidass castes.
The situation is so bad that the Jats actually try to infiltrate the Gurudwaras of others castes and then try to take them over. It actually leads to serious violence. All the drug gangs are Jats, remember the "Punjabi Mafia" it's shocking if you google those words.
All that the Indian govt and Hindu community needs to do to counter these khalistani's is reach out to the Ramgaria and Ravidassia communities.
I have a Gujarati Hindu friend who wears one, I was always curious about it, so he explained the reason to me.sanjaykumar wrote:The only contempt I have is for those Hindus who wear the kara.
What is it about that? Stockholm syndrome?
Hindu men have been wearing such Kara since ancient times.sanjaykumar wrote:Okay what is the meaning of Hindus wearing the kara?
Is it a cultural practice amongst these Hindus, independent of sikhi?
There already was a section of ground level workers of the RSS that was certainly not pleased with what is seen as blackmail around the issue of the farm laws. Even the rebuff on the Veer Bal Divas announcement, saying that it is ‘”not fitting the sentiment of their martyrdoms and Sikh traditions” or the rather uncharitable statement following Guru Tegh Bahadur’s 400th Parkash Purab celebration, caught the RSS and BJP by surprise. Even the outreach of the Sangh Parivar and BJP towards the Ravidasias in Punjab or Radha Soami Satsang Beas has not been received well, and is viewed with suspicion.
RSS’ outreach towards the Sikh community has received repeated rebuffs. The Panthic community has always seen everything from the prism of a 'RSS conspiracy' when it comes to explaining away critical social issues. Be it the issue of evangelical mass conversions in the state, or Hindutva, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's and the extremist elements’ attitude is one of utter hostility. Given this kind of sentiment, it is only a matter of time when the RSS is compelled to re-evaluate its strategy of engagement and the path that it wants to pursue in Punjab.
There is a major churn happening at all levels in the State. A door has opened that could solve many problems in one go, while important players are now being compelled to think the direction of their strategies and plans.
The PM’s exaggerated outreach needs to be seen in context
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been accused of pandering to the Sikhs at the expense of the national interest by several voters of the BJP. Of course, many of the steps in recent years like removing blacklisting, withdrawing the farm laws, or celebrating Parkash Purabs of three eminent Sikh Gurus at a grand, unprecedented scale, do seem like an attempt to appease the Sikh community. At the same time, the context to all these is that there are things happening behind the scenes as well; a few of which are being mentioned here to explain the bigger picture.
In December 2021, the German authorities had arrested Jaswinder Singh Multani, after the Indian government put significant pressure following the court blasts that took place in Punjab.
As Hudson Institute’s Aparna Pande and Sam Westrop have pointed out, Khalistani sympathisers inside the Sikh diaspora, especially in North America and Europe, continue attempting to resuscitate the movement. Multani in fact also faces charges for terror-related incidents carried out earlier, including an alleged plot to kill Bharatiya Kisan (Indian Farmers) Union President Balbir Singh Rajewal. Multani is also a leading member of the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) movement.
His arrest suggests that the heat is being put by India on countries where significant bases of such elements exist.
In fact, this is increasingly becoming the norm, albeit quietly. In perhaps the first reference to the Khalistani issue in public, in a long time, the bilateral visit of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson concluded with the announcement of an anti-extremism task force which will also look into Khalistani extremism.
Though this went under the radar, its importance cannot be underestimated, given the big base of Khalistani supporters and sympathisers living in Britain.
A second important point of late is the situation on narcotics. In February this year, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Director-General S N Pradhan had stated that there has been a threefold increase in the seizure of heroin from 2,146 kg in 2017 to 7,282 kg in 2021.
There is an important Khalistani angle to it that many people tend to overlook. Such activities are essentially meant to raise money for terror.
In Canada, it is well known that many prominent Sikh criminal gangs are actively involved in the drug syndicate. April 2021 saw a huge gang bust taking place as part of Project Cheetah, where ties of the busted gang were traced to India as well. Given that the information that drugs were being used to finance the terror movement was well known since July 2020, the increased activity by Indian authorities is likely to have played a role here too.
A third point to explain the context is the decision of the Centre to create the contentious 50km operational zone for the Border Security Force. Of course, while the element of homogenisation is not entirely wrong, in the context of Punjab it needs to be seen in a different light.
The areas that now see increased BSF jurisdiction intersect with two important areas – what were once the supposed 'liberated' areas; and the water routes for smuggling in weapons and drugs. This area is also coinciding with the zone where increased drone activity of drugs and arms-drops from across the border have been witnessed increasingly. The Centre's decision allows hostile activity to be easily monitored and acted upon in coordination with the local police force.
One interesting insight in all of this was seen with Bhagwant Mann’s statement about the Patiala incident. When seen in context of arrests that took place, and the pace of action that we witnessed, one cannot help but wonder if there was some communication from the Centre on the subject to the state government.
While he blamed the BJP and Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray), Bhagwant Mann interestingly named the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and Simranjit Singh Mann’s Akali Dal faction as responsible for the violence.
Similarly, Raghav Chadha, who seems to be carrying much weight in the Punjab administration, had come out to name the Congress and Akali Dal (Badal) directly for the violence. This is indicative of a broader understanding being present between the Centre and the state, at some level, on keeping law and order under check, and exchanging notes. Of course, this may never be acknowledged publicly by either party, but this could be a much needed reprieve on the issue that everyone had been nervous about.