[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23815-23816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  PROFESSOR EXPOSES FAKE SIKH SCRIPTURES, HINDU PLAN TO DESTROY SIKH 
                                RELIGION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 8, 2006

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, Professor Gurtej Singh JAS is a Professor of 
Sikhism and a very widely respected intellectual leader in the Sikh 
community. Recently, he wrote an article exposing the Dasam Granth, 
which is alleged by some Hindus to be a Sikh scripture. What apparently 
was done was to take a few of the writings of Guru Gobind Singh, the 
last of the Sikh gurus, and combine it with some sexually explicit 
material from a Hindu sect known as Shakat. The aim is to discredit 
Guru Gobind Singh and bring the Sikhs into the Hindu fold, according to 
Professor Gurtej Singh.
  The authors of the Dasam Granth identify themselves within the text, 
yet many insist that the work was written by Guru Gobind Singh and 
should be equal to the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.
  Professor Gurtej Singh commented that a leader of the militant Hindu 
fascist operation known as the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which 
was formed in support of the Fascists, had commented that all the Sikh 
``high priests'' including Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti 
are on the RSS payroll. Thus, they are cooperating in this effort by 
the Brahmins to destroy the Sikh religion. Nice trick in a supposedly 
secular country!
  Also cooperating in this effort is former Chief Minister Parkash 
Singh Badal, who led the most corrupt government in the history of 
Punjab. These are the kinds of people with whom the Brahins choose to 
ally themselves.
  This kind of control over the leadership of the Sikhs is one reason 
that they need their independence, to protect their identity and their 
safety before the Indians wipe them out, as they seek to do. Over a 
quarter of a million Sikhs killed since 1984 proves that. In addition, 
the Indian regime has killed over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, more 
than 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir and 2,000 to 5,000 in Gujarat, as well 
as Christians and Muslims elsewhere in the country and Tamils, 
Manipuris, Dalits, Bodos, Assamese, and other minorities. Tens of 
thousands of people are held as political prisoners, according to 
Amnesty International. The Movement Against State Repression reported 
that lndia acknowledged holding 52,268 Sikhs as political prisoners. 
Many of these have been in illegal detention since 1984.

[[Page 23816]]

  These political prisoners must be released at once and those who 
violate human rights must be brought to justice or we should stop all 
of our aid and trade with India. And we should put the U.S. Congress on 
record in support of freedom everywhere in South Asia in the form of a 
plebiscite on the subject of independence, under international 
supervision to ensure its fairness. Isn't that the democratic way to do 
things?
  While Professor Gurtej Singh's article is too long to put in the 
Record, the Council of Khalistan did an excellent press release on it. 
Mr. Speaker, I would like to add that press release on the Dasam Granth 
fraud to the Record at this time for the information of my colleagues.

           Professor Gurtej Singh Exposes Dasam Granth Fraud

       Washington, DC, December 7, 2006--Professor Gurtej Singh, a 
     leading Sikh scholar, Professor of Sikhism, and an advisor to 
     the International Journal of Sikh Affairs, has published an 
     extensive article exposing how Hindu fundamentalists have 
     promoted the Dasam Granth, which contains very little of the 
     work of Guru Gobind Singh, as his writing and as genuine Sikh 
     scripture, parallel to the Guru Granth Sahib. He exposes the 
     fact that ``the Hindu plan to drag the Sikhs back to the 
     Hindu fold'' requires promoting the Dasam Granth and that 
     this plan has received the support of such allegedly Sikh 
     leaders as former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal 
     and the high Sikh ``high priests'' led by Jathedar Joginder 
     Singh Vedanti. Badal led the most corrupt government in 
     Punjab's history, selling jobs for money, and regularly 
     visits Hindu and other anti-Sikh places of worship, according 
     to Professor Gurtej Singh.
       Professor Gurtej Singh writes that Jathedar Vedanti ``was 
     given the task of actually dragging the Sikh panth into the 
     fold of Hinduism.'' He notes that Jathedar Vedanti, like Mr. 
     Badal, succumbed to the temptations of money. In order to 
     carry out this nefarious plan, Professor Gurtej Singh writes, 
     Vedanti embraced the Dasam Granth as genuine Sikh scripture, 
     claiming that it was written by Guru Gobind Singh and was to 
     be treated as scripture and canon. The Dasam Granth includes 
     vivid, lewd descriptions of sex acts and other pornographic 
     and obscene references that were added to Guru Gobind Singh's 
     writing to make him look bad.
       Professor Gurtej Singh notes that the authors of the Dasam 
     Granth identified themselves in the text. Yet the Hindus 
     insist that Guru Gobind Singh is the author and that the book 
     is Sikh scripture. According to Professor Gurtej Singh, it is 
     a scripture of the Shakat sect, who are worshippers of the 
     Hindu goddess Shiva, as it reflects their mode of worship and 
     their practices. ``It has been a long standing Hindu desire 
     to bring the Sikhs under the umbrella of the Shakat sect,'' 
     he writes. ``This involves getting them to accept some of the 
     rituals of that sect as modes of worship.'' He goes on to 
     write, ``To propagate the dasam granth 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,''
       According to Professor Gurtej Singh, Mr. Sudarshan of the 
     fascist, Hindu militant Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), 
     parent organization of the Hindu fundamentalist BJP, stated 
     that all of the Sikh ``high priests'' including Vedanti are 
     on the payroll of his organization.
       ``We appreciate and commend Professor Gurtej Singh for 
     doing this outstanding work for the Sikh Nation,'' said Dr. 
     Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan. 
     ``He is doing his job as Professor of Sikhism. The Sikh 
     Nation commends him,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Only about 60 pages 
     of the Dasam Granth is the writing of Guru Gobind Singh,'' he 
     noted. ``The rest is later writings that were added and 
     changed. Guru Gobind Singh gave guruship to the Guru Granth 
     Sahib and ordered Sikhs to consider the Guru Granth Sahib as 
     the living Guru,'' Dr. Aulakh noted. ``The Guru Granth Sahib 
     is the living Guru which Sikhs accept with reverence and 
     respect. Recitation of the Dasam Granth should not take place 
     in any Gurdwara,'' he said. ``Sikhs should practice Rehat 
     Maryada which was published in the 1940s by the SGPC after a 
     long review and discussion by the Khalsa Panth.''
       Dr. Aulakh said that it is very disturbing that most of the 
     Sikh leadership is under the control of the Indian 
     government. ``This campaign to destroy Sikhism by means of 
     the Dasam Granth could not be taking place if we had our own 
     homeland. We could more effectively stand up to India's 
     ongoing effort to destroy the Sikh religion,'' he said. 
     ``Without political power, nations perish and religions are 
     destroyed,'' he said.
       India is on the verge of disintegration. Kashmir is about 
     to separate from India. As L.K. Advani said, ``if Kashmir 
     goes, India goes.'' History shows that multinational states 
     such as India are doomed to failure. ``Countries like 
     Austria-Hungary, India's longtime friend the Soviet Union, 
     Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and others prove this point. 
     India is not one country; it is a polyglot like those 
     countries, thrown together for the convenience of the British 
     colonialists. It is doomed to break up as they did. There is 
     nothing in common in the culture of a Hindu living in Bengal 
     and one in Tamil Nadu, let alone between them and the 
     minority nations of South Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said.
       ``Freedom is the God-given right of every nation and every 
     human being,'' said Dr. Aulakh. Sikhs must be allowed to have 
     a free and fair plebiscite on the issue of Khalistan. In a 
     democracy, you cannot continue to rule against the wishes of 
     the people. As former Senator George Mitchell said about the 
     Palestinians, `the essence of democracy is the right to self-
     determination,' We must reclaim the sovereignty of the Sikh 
     Nation,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Currently, there are 17 freedom 
     movements within India's borders. It has 18 official 
     languages, A country having 18 official languages cannot hold 
     its people together for very long,'' he said. ``We hope that 
     India's breakup will be peaceful like Czechoslovakia's, not 
     violent like Yugoslavia's,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Earlier this 
     year, Montenegro, which has less than a million people, 
     became a sovereign country and a member of the United 
     Nations,'' he said. ``Now it is the time for the Sikh Nation 
     of Punjab, Khalistan to become independent.''
       Dr Aulakh stressed his commitment to the peaceful, 
     democratic, nonviolent struggle to liberate Khalistan. ``The 
     only way that the repression will stop and Sikhs will live in 
     freedom, dignity, and prosperity is to liberate Khalistan,'' 
     said Dr. Aulakh, ``As Professor Darshan Singh, former 
     Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not a 
     Khalistani, he is not a Sikh.','' Dr. Aulakh said. ``We must 
     free Khalistan now.''

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