Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Amritsar- Commemorating the 30th year of the Delhi massacre, leaders and activists of various Sikh bodies led by Dal Khalsa, Damdami Taksal and SAD (Panch Pardani) today undertook a long march under the banner of ‘Rights and Justice March’ to knock the doors of the United Nations to petition against Indian state for utterly failing to deliver justice to aggrieved community and victims of Nov 1984 massacre.
A cavalcade of around 100 vehicles today proceeded towards Delhi to meet UN officials seeking world body’s regular and systematic intervention. Waving the saffron flags, holding placards and raising slogans, the young
activists of the Sikh Youth of Punjab, led the march on the streets of the city. To spread the message to passer-by, a big float was designed with slogans and photographs explaining the pain and injustice done to the
community in Nov 1984. Earlier an ardas was performed at Akal Takht to pay homage to those who were killed in the carnage in Delhi and elsewhere.
Dal Khalsa head H S Dhami and Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa said it was far gone conclusion that the Sikhs would never get justice in the present Indian dispensation. Dhami said Sikh and Muslim community were victim of ‘politics of genocide’ perpetuated by both the pro-Indian mainstream parties (Congress and BJP) that have full backing of the establishment.
Both the leaders said it’s ironic that in Nov, 30 years ago, officially 2733 Sikhs and unofficially close to 8000 were killed, but the country and its people refuse to acknowledge it as a massacre, carnage or attempted
genocidal pogrom and have reduced it in writing and oral parlance as a riot between the Sikhs and non-Sikhs.
Explaining the rationale behind the march to UN, Dhami said pushed to the wall and having exhausted all internal legal and political forums, we see no place for refuge except the United Nations and its various institutions.
He told the media that on Monday a joint memorandum by representatives of all ethnic and religious minorities including Muslims, Christians, Kashmiris, Tamils and Nagas would be submitted at UN headquarters after the
conclusion of Rights and Justice rally at Jantar Mantar, Delhi.
He said they would demand a resolution by the United Nations into the role of all the organs of the then government of India in November 1984 mass killings of the Sikhs, including the barbaric assaults on Sikh women, on
the lines of United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution adopted on 19 March 2014 on Sri Lanka for committing alleged serious human rights violations and abuses of Tamil population.
Firing a salvo at Modi Sarkar for announcing compensation to victims families, he said the Sikhs don’t need their doles and money.
Terming the compensation as fake justice, he said the real and complete justice would be done the day there would be a peaceful resolution of the conflict that gave rise to genocidal pogroms against the Sikhs, like the
one in Delhi in November 1984 and the Indian armed forces attack on Akal Takht Sahib in June 1984.
The aspirations, the problems and the grievances that put Punjab on the map in the last decades of the last century still continue to fester and inflict pain to Punjabi’s and Sikhs, said the organizers of the march.
Kanwar Pal Singh said the minorities in India were living in dangerous times and we fear more threats as time passes by. Referring to massacre of minorities, he said India as a notion did not die on 1-2 November 1984 for
the first time. It has died before and since in Kashmir, Gujarat, Orissa many times over.
He said the present incumbents to power in the country were clearly determined to create a Hindu state and they are entitled to their wishes and dreams. Similarly, we too are entitled to our regional, religious and
nationalist aspirations by virtue of our birth, history and legacy and as per the UN charter it is bounding duty of United Nations to ensure that this right is not snatched away by the state.
He said the present day Punjab was reeling under massive drug abuse threatening the lives of the younger generation. Significantly this has been made possible by design and default.
A large number of Panthic personalities joined the march that includes former jathedar Gaini Kewal Singh, SAD (Panch Pardani) leader Kulbir Singh Barapind and Mandhir Singh, Paramjit Singh Gazi, Baba Baljit
Singh Daduwal head of Panthic Sewa Lehar, Bhai Mohkam Singh chairman of United Sikh Movement, Balwant Singh Gopala of Sikh Youth Federation Bhindrawala, Baba Ajit Singh Lohgarh, Baba Sajjan Singh, Baljit Singh
Khalsa, Sandeep Kaur.
