Sikh procession in New Zealand confronted again with haka protest, ‘this is not India’ slogans | Video

For the second time in the last three weeks, a local right-wing religious group has disrupted an annual Nagar Kirtan (religious procession) organised by the Sikh community to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh in New Zealand on Sunday. Sikh bodies including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Amritsar, have expressed deep concern.

This time, the incident happened in Tauranga city, some 225 km from Auckland. The procession began at 11 am on Sunday, January 11, at the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat temple, and moved towards Tauranga Boys’ College via Cameron Road, as per local sources.

Keeping in view the possibility of a disruption by the Christian group, the police department had already beefed up security arrangements. Despite the security arrangements, members of a group linked to Pentecostal leader Brian Tamaki and his Destiny Church attempted to disrupt the procession.

They performed traditional Maori haka, a tribal dance, as protest in front of the procession, and carried banners reading, “This is New Zealand not India.” However, the event concluded without a major untoward incident, due to effective coordination between the police and volunteers.

A video of the incident was shared by Tamaki with captions stating, “WHOSE STREETS? KIWI STREETS.” “The True Patriots Are Not Backing Down.”

“Today in Tauranga, our True Patriots answered the Sikh Parade with a haka…not violence, not silence, but peaceful defiance. Our chant rang out across our streets: ‘Whose streets? OUR streets. Whose streets? KIWI streets," read the caption of the video.

Nearly three weeks back, the right-wing protesters had confronted a Sikh parade in Auckland, which was taken out to mark martyrdom of the Sahibzadas, sons of tenth Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh. That incident sparked tensions within the local Sikh community and drew sharp reactions from Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the Akal Takht jathedar, and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

The president of the Sikh religio-political parliament SGPC, Harjinder Singh Dhami strongly condemned the opposition by some local people in New Zealand to the Nagar Kirtan, and stated that it was peacefully organised by Sikhs in accordance with religious traditions.

He said that such an incident has occurred for the second time in New Zealand, which has deeply disappointed the Sikh community.

Dhami said, “Viewing the religious traditions of the Sikh community — which has always made an exemplary contribution to strengthening global brotherhood — with a hateful mindset is completely unacceptable”.

“Nagar Kirtan is a sacred religious tradition of Sikhism, and opposing it is not only an attack on the humanitarian values of the Sikh faith but also a challenge to social harmony and mutual coexistence," the SGPC chief said, adding, “Sikh community living in every country has always coexisted peacefully with local people and has consistently respected the laws and culture of the host nations. Despite this, deliberately preventing Sikhs from practising their religion is highly disappointing”.

Dhami appealed to the governments of New Zealand and India to take serious notice of the matter and to take strict action against those responsible.