RSS Punjab Vice-President Jagdish Gagneja passes away at DMCH Ludhiana

File Photo: Jagdish Gagneja
File Photo: Jagdish Gagneja

LUDHIANA, Punjab—Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s Punjab unit’s Vice President Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja today passed away at the Hero Heart Institute located within DMCH premises. He was declared dead at 9:16 am.

As per the information shared by Dr. GS Wander (Director of Hero Heart Institute), Gagneja’s health was worsening day by day from the past one week.  He had multiple organ failures and was being kept on ventilator. Dr. GS Wander informed that Gagneja’s Blood Pressure suddenly fell down in the morning and he died.

On August 6, Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja was along with his wife after shopping in Red Cross market in Jallandhar at around 9 pm. He stopped his car to attend a call near busy Jyoti Chowk market. When he was returning towards his car, two assailants with masked faces opened fire on him. After firing three bullets in his chest and stomach, the assailants also fired bullets in the air and left the spot. Injured Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja was immediately rushed to local Patel Hospital of Jalandhar.

The Punjab government had handed over the probe of the case to Central Bureau of Investigation towards end of August as the police has so far been unsuccessful at nabbing the assailants.  Punjab Government had announced a a reward of Rs. 1,000,000.

35 COMMENTS

  1. This guy who got killed must have been distributing some thing which would have lead to chaos in Punjab.
    IHow ever I agree they could have arrested him and produced him in a court.

  2. 1984 was brought upon by Sikhs themselves by Killing of Innocent people in Punjab .
    Don’t kill innocent people and you will not get a genocide.
    Lack of justice for 1984 genocide and killing of Muslims is wrong .and is a black spot on India.

    • You are again just parroting the brainwash narrative to justify attack on the Sikhs. The root cause again you completely ignore for this ‘rebellion’ which go back to before India is actually created and when promises are made to the Sikhs to induce them to join India instead of reforming their own sovereign country again. Talk of that insurrection and betrayal by the likes of Nehru, Congress and the Hinduvta polity in 1950s, 1960s (where ‘revolt’ against Punjab and the Sikh majority there is legitimised by the State by allowing referendum in 1966 encouraging Punjabi Hindus to see themselves as being seperate from their Punjabi Sikh kindred. 1978 the State is committing rebellion against Sikhs by using proxies to murder Sikhs in Amritsar. IN 1984 in the streets of Delhi for 4 days the police (those who are not actually involved in disarming Sikhs and sending mobs to their homes to murder them) are standing aside whilst the army is kept out of the city to allow Rajiv gandhi to take personal revenge on Sikhs – the PM of the country with the full force of the state is committing mass murder – the five thousand plus raped and murdered in those 4 days is over a hundred worse in terms of the numbers killed and properties destroyed than Hitler achieved with his kristalnacht! You really need to read your history properly when you talk of constitution. As reported in Young India, 19th March 1931, Mahatma Gandhi addressed the Sikhs in Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib Delhi and said “I ask you to accept my word and the resolution of the Congress that it will not betray a single individual Sikh much less the Sikh community. If it ever thought of doing so, it would only hasten its own doom… I pray you to unbossom yourself of all doubt and apprehensions. Let God be witness to the bond that binds me and the Congress to you. I venture to suggest that the non-violence creed of the Congress is the surest guarantee of good faith and our Sikh friends have no reason to fear that it would betray them. For the moment it did so the Congress would not only thereby seals its own doom but that of the country also. Moreover the Sikhs are a brave people. They know how to safeguard their rights by the exercise of arms, if it ever come to that”. That same Gurdwara was attacked by Congress led mobs in 1984. At a press conference in 1946 as reported in the Statemans newspaper July 7th 1946, Nehru said “the brave SIkhs of Punjab are entitled to special consideration, I see nothing wrong in an area set up in the north wherein the SIkhs can also experience the glow of freedom”. Then in 9th December 1946 he presented a resolution in the session of constituent assembly “Adequate safeguards would be provided for minorities in India. It was a declaration, a pledge, and an undertaking before the world’ a contract with millions of Indians and therefore in the nature of a oath which we must keep”. He then passed a resolution in the Congress committee on 5th January 1947 “The rights of the Sikhs in Punjab should not be jeopardized”. In July 1947 they passed resolution “In the divided Indian PUnjab special constitutional measures are imperative to meet the just aspirations and rights of the Sikhs”. Now talk of Sikhs breaking the Constitution when bad faith has been given to them after 1947 despite these assurances. We are the most loyal people of India because we keep our word.

    • ‘1984 was brought upon by Sikhs themselves by Killing of Innocent people in Punjab .Don’t kill innocent people and you will not get a genocide.’ By this kind of paternalistic RSS reasoning no doubt you think Indian women who travel on buses at night are also ‘asking to be raped’. Pathetic fascist thinking.

  3. Law and Order in India What a joke, One law for Sikhs and another for ?, one law for dalits and another for ?,one law for minorities and another for ? RSS leader got shot ( I am not condoning it) automatic terrorism act committed by ? Lakhs of rupees reward for the arrest of culprits . Poor Sikhs died in 1984 genocide no reward for the arrest of culprits. Poor Muslims got killed in Gujrat no reward for the arrest of culprits. Recently a poor Sikh boy in Hoshiarpur beaten to pulp by law and order authorities .His crime distributing some flyers (any form of protest banned in democracy for Sikhs and other minorities) automatic sedition charges. Shall I go on ? Regarding Resurrection and any other concepts Sikhs are way ahead of rest of the world ( if you have read Guru Granth Sahib) we don’t have to learn from the likes of you who are unable to differentiate right from wrong.

  4. You got it wrong .
    Sikh is a learner from any one and every one be it a religion or philosophy.
    If “RESURRECTION” is a good concept and was used by Lord Jesus in Christian Faith then we need to adopt it .
    It is a perfect antidote to the lack of Justice for the 1984 Genocide-3.

    • No, you got it wrong. Sikh does not mean that you are a learner who will accept any old twaddle from any religion. Such a person is called ‘gullible’ or ‘stupid’ not a learner. A Sikh is a seeker and learner of TRUTH and rejects information that is irrational or morally reprehensible. Guru Nanak met with Christians, Muslims and Hindus in his travels and determined what adherents to the faith he founded – Sikhi – should believe to be true and what to regard as false. Resurrection was determined by him to be false as was the notion that God was ever immanent in human form upon the earth (which also means Jesus Christ to a Sikh cannot be God). This is doctrine of the Sikhs and as such is immutable. It is hypocritical of you to defend your adherence to your faith Hinduism by saying that its tenets cannot be changed but then suggest that same principle cannot apply to Sikhi. But then again you call Guru Nanak a rebel for rejecting such absurd notion (to a Sikh) as the flying talking Monkey king of the Ramayana.

      • You are not a Sikh (because you don’t want to accept the authority and doctrine of Gurbani) so you are welcome to incorporate any potpourri pick and mix theologies you want for yourself. But Sikhs bow only to their Guru Granth Sahib and his teachings. If belief in afterlife and resurrection helps you try and conceptualise God then maybe that it is your path to his door but Sikhs have their Guru to guide their steps.

    • The word Sikh means to learn and Sikhs therefore are learners but their one and only teacher is the Guru of the Sikhs. EVERYTHING that a Sikh needs to know about unadulterated spiritual enlightenment comes exclusively from our Guru Granth Sahib – we accept no other anymore in the same way we believe that there is only One God and can be no other. You are not a Sikh so are welcome to try and stitch together, grasp and fumble for some kind of theological meaning to life but please do not try to impose such heretical notions on the Sikhs. We do not worship in mandirs, masjids or churches but the Gurdwara of our Guru alone and accept his Gurbani alone as being truth.

      • How can you be a Sikh and believe in ‘Gods’. Sikhi is strictly monotheistic – the very first line in Japji Sahib, the very first words of Gurbani are Ik Onkar – There is but One God. All the saints teachings have already been incorporated by our Gurus into Guru Granth Sahib – 13 Hindu Bhakti sants and 2 Muslim saints – alongside the compositions of six of our Gurus themselves. You can’t add extra wording because there is no need to.

  5. It is not only a Christian concept.
    It is a universal concept for all those people who love life .
    In any case as Sikhs we can always learn good things from other religions.
    So answer to any Genocide is Resurrection for those who want to enjoy eternal life.

    • You don’t pick up other religious ideas from other religions if you are a Sikh. The Gurus – particularly Guru Nanak who travelled thousands of miles to speak with spiritual people – already did that picking and choosing so that we don’t have to. They rejected Gods, Goddessess, God being present in human form on the earth, notions of heaven, paradise, afterlife and resurrection. Resurrection therefore is NOT a Sikh concept so no point you continually raising it.

    • Ressurection is a Christian concept and we are Sikhs so it has no relevance as neither Sikhs or Sikhi can come back from the dead because we did not die in the first place. The antidote to a genocider is to repeatedly shame him so that they cannot enjoy life with complete liberty but have to face persistent accusations wherever they go.

  6. You will have to wait for 100 years before the World will declare 1984 as a genocide.
    It is the greed of throne of India and Punjab for which this genocide was carried out.

    • Why should it take 100 years? The genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia were recognised and chief culprits prosecuted within a decade. The genocide against Sikhs has also been recognised in various parliamentary assemblies around the world (California, Canada etc) due to pressure from Sikh and secular human rights organisation lobbying. Such persistence has also worked in India where both Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath – shamelessly trying to get on with their political careers as if they had done nothing – were both forced to step away from resuming their tickets. In Jagdish Tytler’s case it was because a very brave Sikh journalist Jarnail Singh threw a shoe at home minister Chidambaram in protest at the acquittal of Tytler (who was then in line to be offered political office) and brought the issue of the 1984 anti Sikh genocide back into national media consciousness. In the instance of Kamal Nath who had been quite shamelessly and insensitively parachuted into Punjab as Congress’s party convenor it was the Sikh masses of Punjab who made it untenable for him to stay there. Both cases these two villains who had been protected by judiciary, polity and police for 30 years were forced by Sikh dissent and protest to stand in the dock of public opinion and found culpable. It is exactly that same protest and dissent that continues to prick the consciences and irritate those guilty persons when the state police, polity and judiciary singularly fail to do their duty. I believe the Indian masses are a good people who have been misled by decades of anti Sikh propaganda (a bias still evident on the TV where any story featuring a SIkh wearing his dastaar involves wording like ‘conservative’ and ‘hardliner’) and an over deferential attitude towards state institutions (notably the polity and now the rise of ultra nationalist extremists) and will rally to the cause of demanding justice for their fellow Indian citizens when they are educated again and again of the tremendous atrocities and extra judicial abuses carried out in their name against the Sikhs.

      • The 1984 genociders of Sikhs like Tytlers,Bhagats, kamalnath will be gone one day
        Sikhs will still be around to tell the story .

      • Whilst they are still alive they must be pursued and made to feel shame for their criminal actions not just as punishment for their crimes but as a deterrence for others who think like they do. Their names will live in infamy in Sikh history but India has still a chance now to expunge its guilt in letting them do what they did in her name and protection for over thirty years. I believe that India can do this and must do this for the sake of the country.

  7. I am just saying that religiously motivated crimes should be punished .
    Religion should not act as a waiver for crimes.
    This rule should be applied across all religions including our own.

    • ‘Religion should not act as a waiver for crimes’. But it is daily. The RSS gets away literally with murder because of the protection it receives politically. The greatest religiously and politically motivated crime in Indian history was the genocide of Sikhs in 1984. Kamal Nath, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler etc were not punished then and neither are they punished now. Rather than casting asperions against Sikhs if you are genuine in what you say start with the culprits of 1984 and the likes of the RSS.

  8. Any guy killing a innocent person needs to be arrested and put before the law.
    All such killings are an attempt to. put Punjab into Indira—Bhinderwala period.

    • ‘Any guy killing a innocent person needs to be arrested and put before the law.’ Does this include the police officers who murdered in cold blood in broad daylight two SIkhs peacefully protesting beadbi of our Guru? No, they do not even get suspended let alone have their actions referred to the CBI. Even when Justice Katju finds them culpable his findings are overruled and dispensed with. You cannot have one rule of law for one and another for others in civilised democracy so we are already back in period of extra judicial excess. As for Gagneja being ‘innocent’? He was a leader of a terrorist militia organisation which has been prescribed and banned in India several times and is accused of criminal activity and violence not to mention fraud – one leader has already been arrested for fake encounter he organised against himself!

      • RSS is not a terrorist organization..
        It is a Nationalist organization looking after the interest of all Indians.
        It does not pamper any one particular community like many other parties in country.

      • The RSS is absolutely a terrorist organisation. It has been prescribed (banned) in the past and its foremost poster boy Godse is the murderer of the father of the country. It is enjoying patronage from the BJP government – think Ireland’s Sein Fein and its terrorist branch the IRA and you get an understanding of the relationship as RSS are members of the BJP also. The RSS certainly does NOT work for the interest of ALL Indians as its very ethos is based on Hinduvta principles which are supremacist ultra nationalist (in the vein of Hitler’s SS from which they derive much inspiration from including the the initials) by nature and we have seen their fascist actions in regards to treatment of Christians (Ghar Wapsi ring a bell), Muslims, Dalits (murder of anyone transporting cows which has led to public health problems and stench in Gujarat) and Sikhs (they supported and congratulated Indira Gandhi on attack against Darbar Sahib in 1984. The RSS is the very opposite of the Khalsa in its beliefs and practices and is inimicable to the Sikh.

      • RSS is a fine organization. It is looking after the great Indian civilization.
        Certain events like Mahatma Gandhi and 1984 not with standing .
        They were aberrations and done under a stress factor of.
        1947 was the partition of nation and its accompanied Killings .
        1984 was taken under the stress done by insurgency in Punjab .

      • RSS is looking after the great Indian civilisation? Which great ‘Indian’ civilisation? Is it of the Mahrattas? The Bengalis? The Gujratis? The Rajputs? The Tamils? The Sikhs? There was no India before the British Raj collected them all together and even then one can argue Britishers civilisation (certainly their jurisprudence system with things like outlawing great ‘Indian civilisation’ Thuggee dacoity, sati burning of widows et al) was what came into being. You are delusional beleiving the myths spread by the RSS who trying to rewrite history just as Himmler’s SS did with their notions of ancient Aryan purity and nobility. The RSS is a neo fascist organisation which is violent, religious intolerant and antipathetic to those not of the Hinduvta agenda which means all Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and even Dalits who refuse to accept their lowly position in stratified / ossified great Indian civilisation society of caste. RSS therefore is a direct threat to the unity of the country and really is an insurgency movement all on its own being given political cover by its parent the BJP.

      • Bharat has existed since time immemorial. the land of Ramayana and Maha Bharat.

        India is a British empire name for Bharat.

        The Mughal and British story of India pale into insignificance compared to these great events which hsppened in India.

        Mughal rule saw some of the worst atrocities committed on Indians some thing like the modern day ISIS does to its people in Iraq and Syria.
        British empire was also imperialistic in its behaviour towards Indians.

        RSS preserves these great Epics sagas of Ramayana and Mahabharata which were ,are and will be played out in India for ever not withstanding the modern day new empires.

      • The Mahabharat and Ramayana are mythical stories not historical events. There is no evidence for them. At best you will extrapolating from some battle thousands of years ago and mytholigising from it. Himmler did the same with his pre-history assertion of Germanic super Aryans and the Nazi’s pure and earnest desire to reassert and emulate those ‘lost former glories’. India was never one country before the Moghul invasion – take a look at all the different peoples that live on the subcontinent and you will clearly see an analogy with Europe with all its various nations of peoples. The Punjabi has and always be distinct from the Tamil and the Bengali and the Gujrati for example in physical stature, language, food, clothing, religion. Our commonality has nothing to do with pre-history but the FACT that we are all made by Waheguru and equal in His eyes. We found solidarity against the oppression of the Moghul and the Britishers. Stick with those historical facts rather than RSS romanticised ultra nationalist rhetoric. And best not too use the Ramayana as proof of your argument as that features mystical fantastical supernatural creatures that just don’t stand 21st century scientific scrutiny.

    • What ‘religiously motivated guy’ are you talking about? As far as we know this fascist might have orchestrated this attack upon himself (as another RSS leader has been accused of by the police) to raise his profile and get security protection from police.

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