Khalsa University Approval By Punjab Government Condemned by Leaders

I have no objection to Maithia or anybody else setting up their own privately funded university (providing of course that the funds are not coming from criminal means and that what is taught in such ‘university’ is tested as being factually accurate) in Punjab. My objection is both the attempted hijacking of the word ‘Khalsa’ which belongs exclusively to the Sikh kaum (and is therefore a blatant misappropriation of a brand name which would never be tolerated it if were a commercial brand) and also the ‘giving’ of land belonging to Khalsa College over completely free of charge to private owners (who have connections with the Government who decide who gets such land = serious conflict of interests). You want to start annexing property belonging to Khalsa College to external private interests then make it a completely transparent process of tendering open to all so that those wishing to take advantage of this gratis subsidy can be adjudged by the public to see if they pass a ‘fit and proper persons’ test. What we have instead is a squalid and ethically if not legally dubious situation where a powerful family (using an in-laws name) is effectively awarding itself both land and goodwill to set up a money-making enterprise to enrich themselves. You can’t pretend to love Punjab, Sikhi and democracy and defend such a practice.

You didn’t answer any of my criticisms and have indeed tried to hide behind a smoke screen by talking about Khalsa College evolving into a University. ‘Khalsa University’ is to be built on Khalsa College’s land. It is privately run but will be next door to Khalsa college until a point comes when the Punjab Government forces them to merge subsuming the College into the control of the privately run University. How can the father-in-law of Badal’s son (the deputy head of the Akali Badal Party and heir apparent to Badal) be awarded this land and control of Khalsa University and it not raise questions of impropriety and abuse of power especially when his family are also accused of profiting from the drug trade in Punjab? It is astonishing that you try to present that as not being an issue but gives a startling insight into how much disrespect and disregard you have for the Punjabi common man let alone the Sikh whose ‘Khalsa’ brand is being misappropriated in broad daylight for nefarious ends. Oxford and Cambridge University – two of the oldest and most prestigious Universities in the world are still funded by the British State and not privately owned or run their chancellors and policies have to be publicly scrutinised and approved – recently they had to publicly defend why a statue of beneficiary Cecil Rhodes should remain in place considering his racist views.

Khalsa is not an ‘exclusive club’? You obviously don’t understand why Guru Gobind Singh Ji created it. He wanted distinction and for Sikhs to stand up by standing apart from their peers to act as role models for al of humanity. Khalsa is not a term you can just apply to anybody as it involves self discipline, commitment, knowledge (both temporal and spiritual) and is the very essence of what it is to be a Sikh.

Khalsa College has nothing to do with proposed so called Khalsa University (a privately run and for profit money making institution) which is just going to be built on its land, appropriate its name to cause the necessary desired confusion and conflation. IN that way you can insidiously chip away at / devalue the brand reputation of the word ‘Khalsa’ so as to cultivate muddying doubt and misconceptions about what ‘Khalsa’ actually stands for. Nothing more than a deeply cynical exercise of misappropriation so as to both divide and neutralise Sikhs i.e. Majithia / Badal get to say in time as their university goes on that ‘Khalsa’ stands for this (ambiguous, airy fairy and even antithetical concepts dependent on political whim – rejection of Miri Piri, Panj Pyare etc) but the other lot who are using the Khalsa name (and standing up for the principles the word embodies) are orthodox, hardliners, radicals, extremists etc. Divide and conquer mentality and a long term ‘plant seeds of doubt’ programme from fifth column and very dangerous when you are talking about educating / misleading the youth who will be using these facilities. Otherwise why not just call it the Badal Majithia University and let people know straight away what it is they are signing up for? In the UK you cant even purchase a football team if you don’t pass a fit and proper person rule so how can the Majithia’s just be handed over land and the name Khalsa when they are deeply entangled with Badals and suspected of drug peddling? Jagdish Bhola, DSP dismissed for being a drug lord accused Bikram Majithia, State Revenue and NRI affairs minister of being a kingpin of entire drug racket along with two other Punjab Cabinet Ministers in Badal’s government.

Nobody is fooled. This is just blatant attempt to hijack the word ‘Khalsa’ in order to both financially exploit it and denigrate it. Shameless men behaving shamefully.