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KANWAR SANDHU GOT THE STATUS OF A CELEBRITY AT THE SIKH DAY PARADE 2015



Harjap Singh Aujla


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. 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 the 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 (incharge of National Capital Region for the channel) and Pardeep Singh Gill, Head of New York tri-state region of Global Punjab. Both top executives Sunil Hali and Harbhajan Singh were 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 Golbal 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.

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 organized and to take a pro-active part in the mainstream politics of democratic America. They should 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.

In Canada our community is actively involved at all levels in main-stream political process. The same is possible in America too, though our population is thinly spread all over the country. There are some pockets in California and New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, where the Punjabi and other ethnic groups of India can influence the outcome and some of our folks can get elected too. Several people young and old wanted to shake hands with him and some wanted photographs with him. Kanwar Sandhu spent in excess of three hours in the parade.

harjapaujla@gmail.com