Continuing his tryst with Sikh heritage, Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today took time away from his political and administrative engagements to interact with some eminent Sikh scholars to discuss ways to propagate the cosmopolitan message of the great Gurus and place it in the context of challenges faced by the modern society in the form of menace of drugs,female foeticide, violence and threats to peace and communal harmony in the country.
The occasion was provided by what might have passed off as just another ritualistic release of a book based on distinctive research and highlighting the pan-India landscape against which the Sikh Gurus set their mission. The book, "Historical Sikh Shrines of Jammu and Kashmir", which is the latest offering from an unusual academic and literary collaboration between a Sikh historian, Commodore Dalbir Singh Sodhi of Indian Navy and a Kashmiri Muslim publisher, Shiekh Ajaz of Gulshan Books, Sri Nagar, features some of the most stunning visuals of places visited by Guru Nanak Dev ji, Guru Hargobind Sahib and Guru Har Rai ji, and captures in breath-taking detail in aesthetic camera-work and oil paintings by the author’s daughter Mehak. Some of these places lay in the remotest and almost inaccessible parts of the then Kashmir. The book also deals with the early life of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
Also present on the occasion were Mr. Harcharan Bains, Advisor to Chief Minister on National Affairs and Media, Mr. SK Sandhu , Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Sikh Scholar Dr. Gurbhchan Singh, Giani Swaran Singh Khalsa and Maj. General PS Mehta, In-charge Operations Western Command Chandimandir, besides a large number Sikhs from J and K .The Chief Minister was so touched by the quality of the work done and its presentation that he extended what was meant to be a five-minute affair to a full-fledged session lasting over an hour which climaxed in his honouring both Commodore Sodhi and Mr. Sheikh Ajaz of Gulshan Books Publishing House. The latter has also produced a series of books on Sikh Gurus and the history of the community sinceBaba Banda Singh Bahadur.
The Chief Minister made use of the occasion to discuss issues facing the Sikh community in Jammu and Kashmir. Giani Swarn Singh Khalsa , who represents the SGPC and is in-charge of the Sikh Mission in Jammu and Kashmir apprised the Chief Minister of some long pending issues with the state government there. Eminent Sikh Scholar, Dr. Gurbachan Singh Bachan brought up the problems relating to the spread of Sikh culture and minority Sikh educational institutions in that state. The Chief Minister instructed his Principal Secretary Mr. S K Sandhu, present on the occasion to prepare a detailed note on the issues facing Punjabis in J and K. Mr. Badal said that that he would take the matter up with his J and K counterpart, Mr. Omar Abdullah for an early and expeditious redress of these issues.
Showering profuse praise on the book, Mr. Badal said the effort would serve as an extremely useful and vital information and awareness bridge between the people of J and K, belonging to all communities, and the rest of the country. He called upon more Sikh scholars for laying greater focus on creative research about the cosmopolitan approach of the Sikh Gurus which took them to places as far Ladakh, Tibat, Assam, Maharashtra, Benars and Nanded Sahib in India and Arabian countries in the middle-east, including the Holy Mecca. He said that literary and academic work of this caliber can also help in promoting inter-faith and inter region understanding among the countrymen on the one hand and mankind at large on the global scale on the other. On the occasion Mr. Sodhi said that the main objective of his work was not only to project Historical Sikh Shrines of Jammu and Kashmir on the religious tourist map of the State but also to inspire people across the Globe to visit these Holy Shrines of paramount historic importance.