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Canadian moderates hail Ranjit Singh's downfall

A Special Correspondent

Dave Hayer felt vindicated last week when he heard that Bhai Ranjit Singh has lost his position as jathedar of the Akal Takht. The jathedar should respect the law and move out, Dave -- whose father Tara Singh Hayer was assassinated last year -- said.

Tara Singh Hayer, a former Khalistan supporter had turned a moderate several years ago; he was publisher of the Surrey-based Indo-Canadian Times.

In this city where the Sikh community is highly polarised on the lines of moderates and radicals, Ranjit Singh's suspension from his position, has created further bitterness.

But at the moment the moderates who took control of the largest gurdwara in Vancouver in a recent state-supervised election, are joyous. They feel they have been vindicated. Ranjit Singh's fall, meanwhile, is a big blow to many Sikh temples and their hardline leaders in America. It comes in the wake of failed efforts to get friendly members of the US Congress to get him a US visa.

The suspended jathedar had planned to speak at more than a dozen gurdwaras including the Fremont, California, temple that has pictures of 100 Sikh martyrs including the killers of Indira Gandhi. The jathedar's supporters said he was coming to promote Sikh unity, but moderates in Canada said the visit would worsen tensions between hardliners and them.

Khalistan activists including Gurmeet Singh Aulakh have said the denial of a visa to Bhai Ranjit Singh and last week's suspension from office was engineered by the Indian government. Daljit Singh Sandhu of the World Sikh Organisation said the ouster is unconstitutional, a decision unacceptable to most Sikhs.

"They have betrayed the traditions of the Sikh religion," Sandhu told the press. "We feel Ranjit Singh has done nothing wrong. He will carry on and time will tell who is the real jathedar."

Balwant Singh Gill, president of Surrey's Guru Nanak temple that is now controlled by moderates, believes his associates were right all along when they said Ranjit Singh did not have the authority to unilaterally excommunicate them. Gill has called Ranjit Singh a dictator for many months and he repeated the word last week.

Gill, who has been attending a trial of several hardliners who allegedly hit him in a temple melee over a year ago, believes Ranjit Singh created the situation that led to his expulsion.

"This guy split the Sikh community here and back home," Gill told reporters, speaking in his halting English, sounding exhilarated. He is one of seven British Columbia moderates who were excommunicated last summer for rejecting an edict from the jathedar to remove tables and chairs from temple dining halls. He says the real issue was not religious, but political. If it were tables and chairs, the hardliners would have used some other means to browbeat the moderates.

"We were saying since the beginning that this guy was not following proper procedures. He was a dictator."

EARLIER REPORTS:
Moderate Sikhs oppose jathedar's visit to US
Pressure on US to grant visa to Akal Takht jathedar
Slain Sikh publisher's family in Canada blasts police

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