While the storm stirred by the killing of a breakaway Sikh sect leader in Vienna last month has not yet subsided, the recent visit of a controversial cleric to Metro Vancouver has raised similar hostilities among local Sikhs.

The head of a parallel Sikh sect that professes allegiance to Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Mann Singh Pehowa was prevented from preaching at an Abbotsford temple last week by several hundred angry protesters.

Pehowa – whom critics have called a “pseudo baba” (spiritual master) – has been accused in his native India of immoral and unethical behaviour, as well as sexual assault and rape involving several female followers.

Answering the call of the United Sikh Federation, Sikh hardliners gathered at Gurdwara Kalgidhar Darbar and waved placards and shouted slogans as Abbotsford RCMP arrived to quell the melee.

In an explosive scene with too many eerie similarities to the recent violence in Vienna that divided the Sikh nation globally, the protesters rushed the main hall inside the temple to stall Pehowa’s discourse, while the police were forced to enter the sanctum sanctorum with their shoes on and heads uncovered in the anticipation of clashes and a repetition of the Vienna episode.

On May 24, Sant Rama Nand of a similar breakaway Sikh sect was killed following a shooting incident in a Sikh temple in Vienna.

In that case, higher caste Sikhs wielding knives and a gun attacked two clerics visiting from India.

The second Sikh preacher, Sant Niranjan Dass, survived the attack in which 15 other people were wounded.

Witnesses said that the attackers were fundamentalist Jat Sikhs — traditionally the land-owning farmers in the northern state of Punjab — who accused one or both of the preachers of being disrespectful of the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism’s Holy Book.

The incident sparked widespread rioting in northern India by lower caste Dalit Sikhs in which two people were killed and four injured while entire regions were closed or placed under curfew following the destruction of local highways and other infrastructure.

In the Abbotsford incident last Thursday, one woman was reportedly injured and a journalist allegedly manhandled by temple officials. Both sides now accuse each other of desecrating the temple.

The trouble started as soon as it became known that Mann Singh Pehowa – full name, Sant Baba Mann Singh Ji Pehowa – would be addressing the congregation that evening.

The protesters started gathering outside the temple before Pehowa arrived. Angry crowds in the U.S., UK and Australia have confronted the bachelor baba during his many similar touring sermons to the Sikh Diaspora.

A visit to Southern California two years ago was a publicity disaster, with at least two wealthy gurdwaras canceling Pehowa’s appearances over the public backlash.

Sikh hardliners are not only upset over the allegations of sexual abuse, they also accuse Pehowa of blasphemy and of copying in dress and demeanour their tenth and last living master, Guru Gobind Singh.

They also object that Pehowa encourages his followers to bow before him, as devout Sikhs are only supposed to bow before their holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, in keeping with Guru Gobind Singh’s pronouncement that the Holy Book would be their guiding light down the ages.

Two women formally made the allegations of rape against Pehowa in 2007. The women, with their faces covered, were paraded before the media by former associates of Pehowa, the head of the Gurdwara Sach Khand Ishar Darbar, Pehowa in Haryana, India.

Pehowa has vehemently denied the allegations. He claims that, “I had never met these women before.”

But at least one of those women still sticks to her allegations of rape.

On the condition of anonymity she told the South Asian Post over the phone from India that she was among five to six girls who were sexually assaulted by Pehowa.

“I was raped by him in 2006. I am 23-years-old now and likely to be married. So please don’t publish my name,” she pleaded, to avoid social stigma.

She added that the women had initially pursued the matter through a lawyer in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed the matter to a lower court.

Sahib Singh, a former associate of Pehowa, is now spearheading the campaign against him. He said the matter is still pending in court, but the women and their lawyers are facing “challenges” as Pehowa “enjoys proximity with the top politicians.”

Abbotsford’s Gurdwara Kalgidhar Darbar temple secretary, Surdev Singh Jattana, said that since Pehowa has not been convicted of the alleged crime, he cannot be stopped from visiting temples and addressing the congregations.

“We were approached by his local followers, who wanted him to be invited for spiritual discourse,” he told the South Asian Post. “Since he has not been proven guilty by any court of law how can we discriminate against him?”

Meanwhile, orthodox Sikhs have launched a campaign against Pehowa in different parts of Punjab.

Among them is human rights’ activist, retired Colonel, G.S. Sandhu from Amritsar. A staunch opponent of Pehowa, he has asked the Sikh clergy to take stern action against Baba Mann Singh Pehowa.

Jattana, whose temple is religiously conservative, acknowledges that inviting Pehowa was a mistake, but said the protesters did not impress him.

“Some of them were drunk and misbehaved. They should have protested decently outside the prayer hall,” he said.

Community newspaper editor Lucky Sahota alleges that temple leaders tried to stop the media from going inside the prayer hall and that one official tried to snatch his camera.

“What were they trying to conceal if they weren’t doing anything wrong?,” he said.

Temple president Swaran Singh Gill has apologized to the media.

However, he maintains that the protesters were overly aggressive.

“I have the pictures of the people who were drunk,” he told the South Asian Post.

Both Jattana and Gill claim that the protest was politically motivated. They claim that a rival group associated with the Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar in Surrey, another orthodox Sikh temple group, supported the protesters.

Pehowa was invited to Metro Vancouver by that same temple in early 1990s. The leaders of the two temples are reportedly at loggerheads over several issues of faith.

But Ranjit Singh Khalsa, the United Sikh Federation leader and a member of the Dashmesh Durbar in Surrey, denied the involvement of his temple in the protest.

“The people came on their own on our independent call,” he said.

He said that he wasn’t a member of the Dashmesh Darbar when Pehowa was invited well over a decade ago.

“I had opposed his visit even then,” he said.

He also denied the charge that the protesters who entered the prayer hall were inebriated.

“Some of them had honestly admitted being drunk and had remained outside the temple compound,” he said.

This is not the first occasion on which Metro Vancouver’s orthodox Sikh groups have locked horns over ideological issues. In 2006, a visit by another controversial preacher, Ranjit Singh Dhadrian, also fuelled tension among the two orthodox groups from Abbotsford and Surrey.

Ultimately, the protesters were successful in their bid to quash the controversial cleric.

The public was finally told Pehowa would not speak to the congregation and would vacate the building. An hour later, he was ushered out of the side of the building by his entourage and shuttled away in a waiting SUV.

By Gurpreet Singh