CHANDIGARH: A Sikh who hails from Tamil Nadu and heads the Bahujan Dravida Party (BDP) is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur (reserved) seat in Punjab.
Jeevan Singh Malla, earlier Jeevan Kumar Malla a Scheduled Caste (SC) man, had embraced Sikhism in January last year.
This election seven Sikhs from his party were in the poll fray in Tamil Nadu. They were all BDP candidates.
The 51-year old Malla, who is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court and belongs to Kadodipannai village in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, has this to say: "Sikhism offers liberation for the SC, ST and OBC population from the caste system. Sikhism alone ensures self-respect and dignity and promotes message of peace, as kirpan is a symbol of peace."
Malla said that embracing Sikhism was his personal decision. His wife and children have not adopted the religion.
I embraced Sikhism in January last year after reading a book titled Captivating the Simple-Hearted: A Struggle for Human Dignity in the Indian Subcontinent.
"I translated the book into Tamil. My wife and a party leader translated the book into Hindi," he said.
"I came to know about Guru Gobind Singh from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kanshi Ram," he said.
"Initially I came to know about Sikh Gurus from the discourses of Osho,’’ he added.
Talking about his family background, Malla said that his grandfather Kalungkadioyan was a landless agricultural laborer and his father Ilaya Perumal was the first graduate in 100 villages in their area. He was a Class I officer with the Tamil Nadu government.
Malla and his wife have two children. He has three brothers and a sister.
"I have been visiting Punjab for last about a decade," he says.
Malla a law graduate and who has done his masters in political science floated the BDP in 2019.
This is the first election the BDP is facing.
The party has fielded as many as 40 candidates in states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Delhi.
Jeevan Singh Malla said that besides him, two other candidates are contesting the polls from Punjab.