Kanwar Sandhu gets status of celebrity at the Sikh Parade 2015

By Harjap Singh Aujla
NEW YORK: The Sikh Day Parade 2015 was held on a chilly morning on Saturday April 25th on Madison Avenue of Manhattan, New York. It turned out to be different from previous Sikh Day Parades in a couple of ways. First the marchers displayed more discipline and second the coverage by Punjabi TV channels was more high profile. Relatively newer in the field Global Punjab TV channel had surprised everyone by inviting Punjab's leading print and TV journalist Kanwar Sandhu, former Executive Editor of “The Tribune” Chandigarh, to spearhead the team covering the live telecast of Sikh Day Parade.

He not only watched the parade from an improvised podium, but also offered his comments at short intervals. He was ably assisted by Sumandeep Kaur, Vice President of Global Punjab TV, Dr. Sukhpal Singh Dhanoa (in-charge of the National Capital Region for the channel) and Pardeep Singh Gill, Head of New York tri-state regional bureau of Global Punjab. Both top executives Sunil Hali and Harbhajan Singh were present since morning directing and assisting the process of marathon coverage.

In fact Kanwar Sandhu was in America since the 20th of April, 2015. Global Punjab TV channel had planned live programs under “HELLO GLOBAL PUNJAB” name for different venues on the Eastern Sea-board of the United States. These programs were held in Silver Springs, Maryland on the 20th, Richmond Hill in Queens Island of New York City on 21st , North Brunswick in New Jersey on 22nd , Roselyn, Long Island on 23rd and Paramus, New Jersey on the 24th of April. All those programs were very well received by the on the spot participants and call in participants. Earlier Kanwar Sandhu had been hosting the “HELLO GLOBAL PUNJAB” show from the studios of Global Punjab TV channel in Chandigarh, India. This program is easily the highest rated live call in Punjabi TV show in North America. In spite of starting at 6:00am in India, Kanwar Sandhu has not missed any program so far.

While giving his comments during the live telecast, Kanwar Sandhu told the viewers that he had earlier on witnessed another Sikh Day Parade in 1988. At that time the number of participants was much smaller. The number of participants has swelled many folds since then. Kanwar Sandhu explained the history and significance of Baisakhi in detail and shared his experiences about its celebration in India. He called upon the Indian diaspora in America to get politically and socially organized and to take a pro-active part in the mainstream politics of democratic America. They should emulate the example of their brethren in neighboring Canada and start contesting for membership of local school boards and municipal bodies. There are already some mayors from our community in California and some other states. More positions can easily be contested and won. We should assimilate socially and politically with the main-stream community in America and benefit fully from the system.

A group of horse riders led the parade. The first float in the parade had the holy “Guru Granth Sahib” riding in a well decorated flower bedecked truck. An impressive contingent from Gurdwara Sikh Cultural Society Richmond Hill in New York, the hosts of the parade followed the holy book. Contingents from the other participating Gurdwaras of the tri-state area and beyond marched in their respective allotted slots. Some were following their floats and the others were marching without floats. There were several bands marching in the parade. Some groups were chanting Shabads from the holy “Guru Granth Sahib”. Some others were shouting pro-Khalistan slogans. One group was demanding plebiscite for the Sikh community in 2020. Kanwar Sandhu was impressed by the freedom of speech in America. He observed that as long as people remain peaceful and they do not cause any damage to life, limb and property, their slogan shouting is given due respect. This is called freedom of speech. India can do a lot better, if she can also learn from the American right to free speech.

Kanwar Sandhu observed that in Canada our community is actively involved at all levels in main-stream political process. The same is possible in America too, though the population of Indian diaspora in America is thinly spread all over the country, unlike in Canada, where they are concentrated in electable strengths in certain pockets. There are some pockets in California and New York/New Jersey metropolitan area also, where the Punjabi and other ethnic groups of India can influence the outcome of elections and some of our folks can themselves get elected too. Several marchers young and old, who had watched him on Global Punjab TV, wanted to shake hands with him and some wanted photographs with him. He was impressed with a group of bearded and turbaned riders on Harley Davidson motor-cycles. In all Kanwar Sandhu spent in excess of three hours in the parade.

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