Sikh Youth Raise Awareness of Bapu Surat Singh’s Struggle in front of the White House

WASHINGTON DC, USA—Sikhs gathered in front of the White House on July 22 2015 to demonstrate and support the 83 year old activist Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa.  Bapu Khalsa is on hunger strike since January 2015 for the human rights violations against the Sikh political prisoners that are illegally detained in Indian jails past their sentences.

Slogans such as “Free Sikh Political Prisoners”, “We stand with Bapu Surat Singh”, “No Justice No Peace”, “Khalistan Zindabad (Long Live Khalistan)”, and “India is a fake democracy” rang throughout the evening. The Sikh youth in attendance donned bright yellow t-shirts with a photo of Bapu Surat Singh with the phrase – free Sikh political prisoners; they held signs that said, “India Kills Minorities”, and “India – Stop Shielding Mass Murderers”, along with photos of the elderly Bapu Surat Singh.

A team of street educators wove in and out of the crowds in front of the White House, passing out leaflets with information on the struggle for justice for the Sikh prisoners, talking, discussing and answering any questions the general public had about the demonstration and the situation in India.  In between the slogans, youth spoke about Bapu Surat Singh, his courage, and bravery to stand up to an oppressive state at such an old age.

“He began a peaceful hunger strike to seek release of Sikh political prisoners who were put in jails, and have been in jails even past their sentences – India refuses to investigate the violation of the prisoners human rights for many years,” explained Jasjeet Kaur, a resident of Virginia.

“Bapu ji is inspired by the bravery and resilience of the Sikhs languishing in jails, this is why he fights,” said Amrit Kaur of California. “Not only does the government refuse to look into their cases, but the government’s approach towards the issue is fundamentally defected,” she explained, “they have released human rights abusing cops who were imprisoned for life such as DSP Swarn Dass and Inspector Gurmeet Singh Pinky, so why the double standard towards Sikh political prisoners?”

Gursean Singh of Maryland clarified that “it’s important that we also state our support for the movement in which these prisoners went to jail for… they left their families, they went and fought against the governmental policies that have acted to eradicate the Punjabi Sikh identity”. Tejpaul Singh of California went on to say that there is a movement brewing in Punjab, state in northern India, that will “collectively ignite the fire in all our hearts…it will burn and create a new Punjab, where everyone’s basic human rights are upheld and preserved”.