Ignored by parties, Peshawar’s Sikh candidate to independently contest polls

Radesh Singh Tony hopes to work for all of his voters irrespective of religion

PESHAWAR: While the Sikhs and Hindus make up a significant part of Peshawar, they are usually ignored for tickets on general seats come election time. One local, though, has set out to buck that trend, even if it means contesting the elections as an independent and raising funds from friends and supporters.



Radesh Singh ‘Tony’ is a prominent member of the local Sikh community. He was elected to the local government after he successfully contested for a minority general councillor seat. Tony won the seat with a huge margin, securing 1,499 votes against his rival who only managed 280 votes.

However, he resigned from his councillor seat after he decided to contest the upcoming general elections.

But with no political party willing to bet on him from PK-75, the well-known rights activist and civil society member has decided to go it alone as an independent.

He is probably the only member of a minority community who will be contesting the upcoming elections as an independent from a constituency inside Peshawar cantonment on a general seat.

“Normally, members of our community are assigned tickets for reserved seats by political parties,” Tony said while making an unnamed reference to last popular Sikh who held a reserved seat in the provincial assembly — Sardar Suran Singh from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

“But no one has given a party ticket to a minority member for a general, non-reserved seat so far. Hence I have decided to contest the elections as an independent candidate and try my luck,” explained the father-of-three.

“I am probably the first minority member in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) who is contesting the elections as an independent candidate,” he claimed.

The owner of a small business — like many of his peers — Tony has little money to fund his campaign and is hedging his bets on motivating his supporters and friends to bankroll his campaign.

“Contesting an election is not an easy thing in Pakistan and definitely not an easy task for a Sikh which I have increasingly realised in the past few days,” he claimed, adding that the exercise required the expenditure of a lot of money.

He, however, claimed that he was lucky and had a lot of very good friends who were willing to support him financially.



“My family, as well as Muslim friends are supporting me [in my campaign]. For example, my sister told me that she was going to pay for printing 2,000 stickers for my election campaign,” he said, adding, “I have Muslim friends in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Awami National Party (ANP) who are supporting me.”

Tony said that he had paid the Rs20,000 election fee to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) while one his friends from civil society had promised to pay for all of his banners.

Manifesto

Tony’s manifesto is simple, work for the locals to solve their problems.

“If elected, I am going to serve both the Muslim and non-Muslim voters and solve their problem on a priority basis and increase interfaith harmony in the city,” he explained.

Controversy

Even before his campaign got underway, Tony was the subject of some controversy — particularly around his religion with some claiming that he had apparently converted from Hinduism to Sikhism.

Tony, though, has denied those reports.

“My brother is not a Khalsa Sikh (initiated), which is why people think that I am a Hindu. But I wish to assure you that I am a Sikh, my brother is a Mona Sikh (a male of Sikh heritage who does not keep the basic untrimmed hair), and I am a Sardar,” claimed Tony as he traced his family history.

“Our grandfather moved to Peshawar where I was born. I graduated and started my own business in Peshawar,” he said, adding that his family originally hail from Kana Kach area of Lahore, near the Changa Manga forests.

Moreover, he said that his family which lives in Indian Punjab were also Sikhs. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2018.