AISSF President Peer Mohammad comes out against screening of movie ‘31st October’

31-october-soha-soloNEW DELHI—All India Sikh Students Federation President Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad has come out against the screening of upcoming movie ‘31st October’.  ‘31st October’ is based on the anti-Sikh massacres of 1984.  The movie is scheduled to hit screens worldwide on October 7.

Speaking with Sikh24, Peer Mohammad said that the movie is more focused on portraying the achievements of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi rather than the massacre of innocent Sikhs by Hindu mobs.

He alleged that the Director Shivaji Lotan Patil has tried to portray the genocide of Sikhs as communal riots between two communities which was totally wrong.  Seeking SGPC’s interference in the matter, Peer Mohammad said that he would launch an agitation to stop the movie from hitting cinema screens.

It is pertinent to note here that the movie ‘31st October’ was given green signal by the Central Board of Film Certification with 9 changes to the movie. The story of the movie revolves around the tragedy of a Sikh family whose chief ‘Sardaar Ji’ gets killed by the Hindu mobs and his wife (played by Soha Ali Khan) had to face severe problems with her three children.  Most of the movie has been shot in Ludhiana area.

 

33 COMMENTS

  1. Gandhi, Nehru are gone.
    Congress is on decline.
    Where do we go from here after all these betrayals ..
    What kind of future course do you propose.

    • Nehru and MK Gandhi may be gone but that does not mean the promises they made to the Sikh Panth have died with them. Treaties endure long after the deaths of those who design and sign them and Nehru and the Mahatma’s pledges to the Sikhs were specifically designed to make the Sikhs join India rather than go back to reforming their own country once again. The way forward is very obvious. 1) Recognition and acceding to the historic Sikh grievances clearly detailed in the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions. 2) Public and unequivocal recognition of state organised pogrom against the Sikhs in 1984 with arrest and sincere prosecution of culprits still alive. 3) Setting up of truth and reconciliation commission so that accurate record can be entered into the history books and all Sikh political prisoners released immediately and Sikh victims honoured with memorials and education in schools 4) Autonomy given to Sikhs in the Sikh homeland of Punjab – we already have precedents for this with Punjabi Hindus getting the right to self determination in 1966 and recently the peoples of Nagaland. 5) The withdrawal of Hinduvta parties form the Punjab, notably the RSS which has infiltrated Sikh institutions. Do all that and there is no Sikh grievances left.

  2. 1978 was a bait laid out by the Empire for the hot headed Sikh
    The simple minded Sikh bit and got in the whirlpool of. 1980-90 IB Punjab ( Indira – Bhinderwala ) violent era.

    Now if some one does not want to give his mother tongue as Punjabi it is his free will.

    The genocide was carried out by the hyper Nationalists Regime who portrayed Sikhs as anti National terrorists.

    The Sikhs were portrayed as out to destroy India by creating a conflict between Sikh religion and India.

    So moral is that in any Nation the religion should never get into conflict with the Nation.

    • You are betraying your bigotry using the terms simple minded and hot-headed to describe Sikhs. You distort the events of the 1978 massacre of Sikhs in Amritsar and completely omit any reference to the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions and Sikh agitation prior to that. I have explained in detail countless times that 1984 happened because the promises made to Sikhs to induce them to throw in their lot with India in 1947 were reneged upon by the likes of Nehru onwards. These genuine grievances were outlined in detail in the Anandpur Sahib resolutions during the 60s and 70s and were again rebuffed culminating in the 1978 murder of Sikhs by Central Government proxies as Congress were trying to break the stranglehold of Akali power in Punjab to emasculate Sikh demands. Nothing to do with religious extremists but dirty politics and broken promises. Both Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi made solemn oaths to guarantee the rights of Sikhs which were reneged upon. The Punjabi Hindus have already walked away form Punjab taking land from it to form their own state of Haryana (in 1966 referendum) and the Sikhs, although unhappy at this severing of blood ties, accepted the right of self determination of their separatist Hindu brethren and did not oppose either the referendum or its result. The Sikhs remained loyal to their motherland of Punjab and to its mother tongue. As for 1980 to 1990 whirlpool again you completely ignore the root cause which goes back to before India is actually created and when promises are made to the Sikhs to induce them to join India instead of reforming their own sovereign country again. As reported in Young India, 19th March 1931, Mahatma Gandhi addressed the Sikhs in Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib Delhi and said “I ask you to accept my word and the resolution of the Congress that it will not betray a single individual Sikh much less the Sikh community. If it ever thought of doing so, it would only hasten its own doom… I pray you to unbossom yourself of all doubt and apprehensions. Let God be witness to the bond that binds me and the Congress to you. I venture to suggest that the non-violence creed of the Congress is the surest guarantee of good faith and our Sikh friends have no reason to fear that it would betray them. For the moment it did so the Congress would not only thereby seals its own doom but that of the country also. Moreover the Sikhs are a brave people. They know how to safeguard their rights by the exercise of arms, if it ever come to that”. That same Gurdwara was attacked by Congress led mobs in 1984. At a press conference in 1946 as reported in the Statesman newspaper July 7th 1946, Nehru said “the brave SIkhs of Punjab are entitled to special consideration, I see nothing wrong in an area set up in the north wherein the SIkhs can also experience the glow of freedom”. Then in 9th December 1946 he presented a resolution in the session of constituent assembly “Adequate safeguards would be provided for minorities in India. It was a declaration, a pledge, and an undertaking before the world’ a contract with millions of Indians and therefore in the nature of a oath which we must keep”. He then passed a resolution in the Congress committee on 5th January 1947 “The rights of the Sikhs in Punjab should not be jeopardized”. In July 1947 they passed resolution “In the divided Indian PUnjab special constitutional measures are imperative to meet the just aspirations and rights of the Sikhs”.
      Moral of the story then is a Nation must keep its word when it is given to its religious minorities inducing them to be part of that nation in the first place.

  3. I agree it was Indians who carried out the Genocide .
    But who got us into this Genocide.
    It was Indira Gandhi and Jarnail Singh Bhinderwale duo who got us into this mess.
    The main players of 1984 Indian Punjab.
    Time to move on by Resurrection to the great voyages to distant Planets and Galaxies.

    • You say you accept Indians carried out the genocide (and let us not forget the ensuing extra judicial murders in the 15 years that followed) and then end with a but. Don’t you know Indira Gandhi and Bhindranwale were both Indians. And you still got amnesia over 1978 murder of Sikhs in Amritsar? What about the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions in the early 1970s that came from Sikh agitation and grievances over reneged pledges by India during the 1950s and 1960s? What about the 1966 referendum given to Punjabi Hindus to form Haryana and reject their mother tongue? The genocide does not ultimately emanate form just two people but from one side India refusing to honour promises made to the other the Sikhs in the very formation of the country.

  4. Several Nations in world are Empire administered units .
    Empire tends to suppress all those who challenge its hegomoney using the security apparatus of Nation.

    • Ah, back to your familiar refrain. Indians are not responsible for their crimes and atrocities they commit – ‘it was the other guy for outside of the country that was manipulating them’. A drunk cannot be cured of his alcoholism if he keeps blaming the barman serving him drink rather than his own self control – same with morality and humanity.

  5. It will take atleast 100 years for people to acknowledge the genocide of Sikh people just like the Armenian genocide of Ottaman Empire.

    The hyper nationalists are capable of lot of violence.and one should be wary of such people.

    • Why should it take 100 years? The genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia were recognised and chief culprits prosecuted within a decade. The genocide against Sikhs has also been recognised in various parliamentary assemblies around the world (California, Canada etc) due to pressure from Sikh and secular human rights organisation lobbying. Such persistence has also worked in India where both Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath – shamelessly trying to get on with their political careers as if they had done nothing – were both forced to step away from resuming their tickets. In Jagdish Tytler’s case it was because a very brave Sikh journalist Jarnail Singh threw a shoe at home minister Chidambaram in protest at the acquittal of Tytler (who was then in line to be offered political office) and brought the issue of the 1984 anti Sikh genocide back into national media consciousness. In the instance of Kamal Nath who had been quite shamelessly and insensitively parachuted into Punjab as Congress’s party convenor it was the Sikh masses of Punjab who made it untenable for him to stay there. Both cases these two villains who had been protected by judiciary, polity and police for 30 years were forced by Sikh dissent and protest to stand in the dock of public opinion and found culpable. It is exactly that same protest and dissent that continues to prick the consciences and irritate those guilty persons when the state police, polity and judiciary singularly fail to do their duty. I believe the Indian masses are a good people who have been misled by decades of anti Sikh propaganda (a bias still evident on the TV where any story featuring a SIkh wearing his dastaar involves wording like ‘conservative’ and ‘hardliner’) and an over deferential attitude towards state institutions (notably the polity and now the rise of ultra nationalist extremists) and will rally to the cause of demanding justice for their fellow Indian citizens when they are educated again and again of the tremendous atrocities and extra judicial abuses carried out in their name against the Sikhs.

  6. If some one is spewing hate then one can approach courts for remedial measures.
    But I can tell you one will always have people who will hate for some reason or other like race,religion,nation,class,caste etc etc.
    Rise above hate and know how to handle it without getting to worked up.

    • Approach the courts for remedial measures?! The victims of 1984 have waited more than 30 years and still not been given justice and yet those same judiciary and polity have given excuse and protection to the culprits. Do not insult our intelligence by insisting we play the game when everyone is fully aware (you included) that the dice are loaded against us and the rules changeable. Sikhs don’t hate anyone so don’t need your disingenuous advice (considering your avid support for the RSS) that we should rise above it. We were taught by Guru Gobind Singh Ji himself how to handle people with hate in their hearts against us and who will not listen to reason. But then you are ready to condemn all Sikhs who follow his instruction as being ‘hyper religious’ don’t you as your hatred towards those who dare to wear their dastaars or protest against injustice whether it be Sikhs protesting beadbi or Bapu Surat Singh fighting for the rights of prisoners on his very death bed. Rise above your hate towards the Sikh Panth and Sikhi – we are the guarantors of democracy and religious tolerance.

  7. Listen to the likes of Anil Kaul who on national TV calls for the murder of innocent Indian citizens ——- He has got away with that because a new normal has been created in India that allows genocide to be acceptable.

    I told you that both the Hyper Nationalists and Hyper religious people are capable of indulging in lot of Violence.
    One person Opinion should not bother us to much as you will find people with all shades of Opinion in India .
    We need to focus on our future distant voyages as this planet Earth is going to burn of with all the Nations on it.
    Be wary of hyper religious ,Hyper Nationalists and Empires with its world orders and its Military Industrial complexes.

    • ‘One person Opinion should not bother us to much as you will find people with all shades of Opinion in India .’ Rajiv Gandhi had ‘one person’s opinion’ and used it to slaughter thousands of Sikhs without any one stopping him. People in positions of power and influence in a deferential society – and the television media in India is the number one way of disseminating information and propaganda to the masses even surpassing the rewriting of school text books which targets the youth – abuse their authority on a daily basis to propagate misinformation and prejudices. Again tell me why Anil Kaul has not been challenged or arrested for expressing his terrorist views when a Kashmiri speaking publicly would have been detained for suggesting the extra judicial murder of those of another faith was somehow justified and necessary for their concept of nationalism? We all know why Kaul gets away with it and why he continues to get a public platform to spout his bigoted hate speak against Indians he regards as being the ‘other’, being less deserving. Kaul is not an example of a hypernationlist or hyper religious person but the new acceptable ‘reasonable’ (hypocritical) face of common man in the street nationalism in India because he is from the majority population. We need to focus on people like him not distracting thoughts of space travel as you have no business going into space carrying your prejudices against other peoples let alone lifeforms with you.

    • By ‘ us hot headed guys’ I assume you mean you and your Hinudvta minded compatriots. Don’t worry the Sikhs can easily handle you, after all you RSS types can only ever muster enough courage to attack when you outnumber in mobs.

  8. With the one-eyed monster declaring and gloating what should the state be doing is actually admitting that its ok for the Indian Government to butcher the innocents members of the activists who fight for rights. Now the world has it before it self-confession from this so called democracy government.
    Get disturbed by these movies as Bhai Ji has so rightly mentioned than do NOT get disturbed by other movies you so ban.

  9. With the one-eyed monster declaring and gloating what should the state be doing is actually admitting that its ok for the Indian Government to butcher the innocents members of the activists who fight for rights. Now the world has it before it self-confession from this so called democracy government.
    Get disturbed by these movies as Bhai Ji has so rightly mentioned than do NOT get disturbed by other movies you so ban.

  10. I feel
    We must. always be wary of people who are hyper nationalist or hyper religious.
    In order of precedence Nation should be ahead of religion ..
    Don’t get too disturbed by such movies .

    • When you don’t address the genocide against Sikhs as you have suggested then you end up with people like that one-eyed HYPER NATIONALIST pirate Anil Kaul going on live Indian national TV and stating without any shame that it is perfectly alright to murder Indian civilians in an extra judicial manner that butcher of Punjab KPS Gill engaged in. He even advocated blood tests in order to target people who not been charged of let alone actually convicted of any crime other than perhaps holding an opinion contrary to his own! His fellow panellists didn’t even object which shows what happens when you allow genocides to become just a thing to be expected in India rather than condemned and culprits vigourously pursued and shamed. And it is NOT ‘HYPER RELIGIOUS’ for a Sikh to stand wearing his dastaar and his kirpan protesting the beadbi of his Guru. Like your RSS compatriots you are confusing nationalism with anti-intelluctalism. As for your contention Nation must be above an Individual’s religious rights I would remind you that Adolf Hitler preached that same message that the State was above and beyond every other consideration in the life of a nation and complete obedience (which meant zero dissent or disagreement with the Fuhrer) was what every citizen had to give in order to be ratified as being loyal. He was able to then castigate, persecute and murder those he considered were disloyal to the Nation – the Jews, the homosexuals, every political dissident etc. In order of prescedence I suggest human rights and civil liberties trumps Nation and those values are guaranteed by Sikhi. As for ‘don’t get too disturbed by such movies (this one, Santo Banto and Nanak Shah Fakir to name just recent ones) why do you then oppose the release of films like Sadda Haq, Delhi 1984, Mastermind Jinda Sukha, Kaum de Heere, Hawayein, Dharam Yudh Morcha which are all based on true events?

  11. I need we need to get over our 31 Oct 1984 genocide -3 syndrome.
    There will be people who will gloat and celebrate it.
    We need to Resurrect our selves and prepare our selves for the great voyages that beckon us to distant planets and galaxies.

    • Need to ‘get over it’?! Yes, and the Jews just ‘need to get over it’ in regards to the holocaust and not make such such a ‘fuss’ with all their films, prosecutions against elderly Nazis, memorials, education programmes including shaming the German Government into instituting a law that still stands over 60 years later to prevent Nazism and a law that puts people in prison for being genocide deniers. Learn form the west how to deal with genocide instead of trying to pretend it didn’t happen or wasn’t important and that those criminals who have lived free with full support of the State to this day (giving them clean chits) are punished. Really as a non Sikh you have no right to tell Sikhs ‘just get over it’ – even as a human being you shouldn’t even be saying that.

    • Hindus haven’t forgiven evil god ravana for kidnapping their female god sita…. and that was apparently thousands of years ago. This seems to be okay with you. But Sikhs should forget the maasacre and genocide that happened in this lifetime. You are truly an evil agent harinder.

      • The genocide-3 needs to be chapterized like rest of the the genocides1 & 2 the community has under gone.
        The world and our story is more than story of Ramayana and 1984.
        It is not correct to live in Perpetual grief.
        Life is a voyage to distant planets and galaxies and not a mourning gathering.
        We need to
        RESURRECT
        It

      • Sikhs can forgive but they cannot forget. To earn that forgiveness you and your compatriots must acknowledge the magnitude of your crimes against the Sikhs and be genuine in remorse. We have perfect example in Anil Kaul and indeed the total lack of challenge from his fellow panellists and media TV interviewer that no tears have been shed and the wrong lesson has been learned which allows and endorses extra judicial killing of fellow Indian citizens – civilians who have not committed any crime other than being from a religious minority. Those who forget their past are doomed to repeat it – that is the perpetual grief you should be trying to avoid.

      • We need to remember our 3 rd genocide like the rest two.

        The hyper nationalist of all eras have indulged in it .

        They think that they will make a utopian nation out of it by homogenization and oppression.

        We will not be most likely getting Justice for this genocide-3.

        The only answer is

        Resurrection.

      • You really do not understand the Sikh psyche and ethos. Striving for justice and standing up for it are as vital as actually obtaining it. Look how we continue to get under your own skin with our constant demand that the injustices of and atrocities committed against the Sikhs from 1984 onwards be addressed. Pricking of your conscience and not letting you just dismiss such human rights abuses keeps the memories of those murdered, raped and beaten alive so that you do not find it so easy to continue such crimes against humanity. Ask the likes of Kamal Nath and Jagdish Tytler who have escaped justice repeatedly in Indian justice system how much they would like the Sikhs to stop remembering their crimes and demanding they be brought to book. They have not managed to buy a clean chit from the Sikh Panth and they never will – their very names will live in infamy in our history long after they are forgotten by their own.

      • The Sikhs need to rise from Ashes again much to the disappointment of all the Genociders .
        Let us become

        Resssurectors

        To rise again and again from any number of genocides.

      • I would prefer that we are not subjected to any more genocides let alone accustom ourselves to rising from them again and again as you put it. Not really appropriate to use the term ‘resurrection’ either as firstly neither Sikhi nor the Sikh Panth ever ‘died’ (you cannot kill an idea) and secondly it is a religious term associated with Christianity. And it it not just an issue of the ‘genociders’ but those Indians who also facilitated (the courts, the police, politicians) and indeed condoned the genocide as a means of ‘understandable’ retribution and collective punishment. There are tens of thousands of these and because of the State refusing to admit its culpability over three decades there are now generations and millions of Indians who have grown up either not being aware of the true ghastly extent of the atrocities committed in the name of the State against its own citizens but those who have been educated to deny it or mitigate it by saying that those uppity Sikhs somehow deserved ‘what happened’, ‘had it coming’. You yourself repeatedly indulge in denial language with your intimations that Sikhs were then (and indeed now if they offer dissent and protest) religious extremists when doing nothing but raising long standing genuine grievances and expressing their religious identity as was guaranteed to them by both Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru before the Sikhs of the Punjab acceded to becoming part of India. The Sikhs will of course endure no matter the atrocities and abuses committed against them – history teaches you that – but my dream of a great India is badly damaged and reduced by not accepting the grave injustices done then and even now against the Sikhs. Listen to the likes of Anil Kaul who on national TV calls for the murder of innocent Indian citizens because they are not of the same religion as him and the majority population. He is not challenged or arrested for inciting religious intolerance and murder of civilians even though he is using the language of terrorism. He has got away with that because a new normal has been created in India that allows genocide to be acceptable. How far we have fallen from that idealism of my youth in the 1950s when India had so much promise for all its diverse peoples.

    • Haringey did you loose any freind or family in October 1984. If you have would you forgive? NO
      If you are true Sikh you would never forget to what happened to your Sikh brother’s, sister’s, mum’s, dad’s and children.

      • Well all of those who lost lives are like my family.
        I do feel sad for 1984 victims.
        But I also know that in Journey of life genocides will occur .
        We may get more genocides like 4,5,6 in future .
        We must have some method to deal with such genocides.
        One smart alternative to denial of justice is
        Resurrection.
        No genocider can defeat a Resurrector

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here