SSP Suspended in Gurdaspur due to Sikh Sangat Pressure and Other Updates
News has started to trickle on this day that Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana was initially scheduled to be hung.  Due to the stay ordered by President Patil of India, there is an indefinite delay. On Gurdaspur News media are reporting the Punjab Police has suspended SSP (Senior Superintendent of Police)...
Plutocratic Politics of the Punjab 2012 and An NRP’s Guide to Understanding Punjab Politics
WARNING: This is long! Last week, the Punjab election results surprised many.  Most pundits had believed the cycle of anti-incumbency would continue and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) would fall to the Congress Party, under Captain Amrinder Singh’s leadership.  The results were stunning and after...
Reflecting on the Punjab 2012 Elections
Guest post by Nirbhau Kaur [Admin note: This post was penned by the author the morning after election results were made public in Punjab.] Pain. Disgust. Hurt. Dread. Longing. Connect, then Disconnect. For the first time I felt these feelings in relation to Punjab – a land where I was not born,...
2011 SGPC Election (Mis)Results
The results are in and much to no one’s surprise – Badal and his cronies won. If you ran against the don, he sent his goons. If your supporters were going to come out and vote, they captured the booth and made sure your supporters were turned away. If they thought it was going to be close – they...
A Tale of Two Tyrants
The events following the June elections in Iran continue to reverberate.  The allegations of widespread election fraud led to hundreds of thousands of Iranian youth to take to the streets and asking “Where’s My Vote?” A regime unable to answer its citizenry and an escalating use of repressive...
Fuss of a Sikh Calendar and Badal in 1984
In time for the beginning of the Sikh New Year according to our own Nanakshahi calendar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) has released its annual calendar.  In this 25th year of remembering the events of 1984, it is a moment for Sikhs to reflect and take lesson as well as maybe something...
The Future of Panjab?
Bleak is all I can say! Some posts require a soundtrack – click on the following to play along as you read. Last week, Raja Parkash Badal crowned his son, the young prince, the new Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab.  In a move unprecedented even in the nepotistic land that is India, Parkash Singh Badal...