Take Two

A Sikh’s Apology to Pawar

Kamalpreet Kaur | 04 Dec, 2011

Harvinder Singh, the slapper, insulted the kirpan

While a frenzied Indian media debates the level of tolerance of its people— over the ‘slapping’ of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar—I sit appalled and dismayed, far away in the UK. I see the incident from a very different perspective.

I am a baptised (and trying to practise) Sikh and wear my sword (kirpan) with great reverence. Living outside India, I have realised how difficult it is to make people understand why I wear the kirpan and why I look the way I look. It’s a constant struggle to practise my faith openly. To an untrained eye, a kirpan is a dagger. I see it as an article of faith, which comes with great responsibility. This has further accentuated my reaction to the incident.

I do not care if Harvinder Singh gave vent to genuine frustration or if he has become a symbol of the general public’s anger with the political lot. This man brandished my article of faith in a highly despicable and unacceptable manner. He made a mockery of what our Gurus stood for. He audaciously chanted “Sava lakh se ek ladaoon, tabaye Gobind Singh naam kahun” after committing an appalling act. I saw him playing to the cameras, especially after the slap, his orchestrated moves with his kirpan and the comical way in which he flaunted it. He didn’t stop there. Respected slogans that stand for valour and sacrifice emerged from his mouth in the same breath as the rest of the truth-trash he hurled around. And when he spoke to camerapersons outside the building, his sham of making a sacrifice like Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib’s was just too much for me to bear.

Harvinder Singh—my overzealous and misguided ‘brother’—must live in cuckooland if he thinks there’s a quick fix to the ‘system’ that prevails in India. Or, he may have his own reason or agenda for doing what he did. But for me, he has violated the sanctity of my faith. I feel as if he has let me down and that it’s my responsibility too to correct what he did and said—for the sake of the rest of us.

For this shameful conduct of someone wearing a kirpan, I apologise, Mr Pawar (even if you are one of the lot responsible for causing misery to millions of Indians).