Sikhs clash over gay marriages

The Akal Takht and Canada-based body are clashing over gay marriages.

The issue of same sex marriages, which followed Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin right down to India, continues to generate heat within the Sikh community.

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The community is diametrically divided on the topic, with the Akal Takht, clashing with the Canada-based World Sikh Organisation (WSO).

While Akal Takht head Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti has clearly opposed same sex marriages, the WSO in Ottawa has openly gone public against his stand.

Just two days before Martin arrived in New Delhi on Monday, Vedanti directed Sikhs worldwide to reject the legalisation on same sex marriage being proposed by Martin's Liberal Party.

But the WSO has said Vedanti need not interfere in the internal matters of Canada. WSO president Ajit Singh Sahota told the South Asian Observer that his organisation was against the Akal Takht getting embroiled in this debate.

"The Sikh religion doesn't allow imposing one's point of view on others. Because the proposed Bill is not going to be mandatory for all, it doesn't interfere with the Sikh Rahat Maryada," he said.

Appealing to Vedanti to refrain from getting involved into the issue Sahota said, "Because the proposed Bill is not affecting the Sikh community, we should not get embroiled."

The unprecedented directive by Vedanti followed a lively debate in the press. A Chandigarh-based newspaper report even speculated that Martin had cancelled a planned visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar because of political compulsions over the controversy.

The newspaper cited sources to suggest that Martin was advised against visiting Sikhism's holiest city because he would get a cool reception from religious leaders there. Canadian officials flatly denied Martin's proposed Amritsar visit was cancelled on this ground.

In fact, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who addressed a joint press conference with Martin in New Delhi on Tuesday, was taken aback when a foreign correspondent asked for his views on same sex marriage.

"It is an internal matter of Canada. These kinds of marriages are not appreciated here (in India)," said Manmohan Singh, a Sikh himself.

The issue has divided Sikh members of the Canadian Parliament. The first ever turbaned MP, Gurbux Singh Malhi, is vehemently opposing the Bill, saying in the Sikh religion there was no room for same sex marriage. He openly says he is going to oppose the bill being brought to the floor by his own party.

On the other hand, Malhi's young colleague Navdeep Singh Bains holds a different viewpoint. He made an impassioned plea for Canadian Sikhs to recognise the wider significance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"When you're not in the minority - somebody else is the minority - how easy it is to point the finger at another minority. I think Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and all other faiths and all other minorities that exist in Canada cannot forget how important the Charter has been to us in the past and will be in the future," says he.

Another young and dynamic MP, Ruby Dhalla, hasn't decided how she will vote when the same sex legislation comes to the Commons this spring. She said Canadian MPs won't be swayed by the Sikh edict, but she didn't deny its impact.

"The individual that's issued it is equivalent to the Pope, so there is a significant influence," she said.