AMRITSAR SAHIB, Punjab—In what has become typical in the so-called world’s largest democracy, Resham Singh, a American citizen of Bakersfield, California, was finally released after six weeks of physical torture and threats during captivity, for attending a Sikh socio-religious gathering (Sarbat Khalsa).
Resham Singh was charged with sedition, a questionable charge since he had broken no laws and exercised his legal right, in both Indian and international law, for freedom of assembly. He had helped organize and attended the Sarbat Khalsa on November 10 in 2015, after which the charges were placed. He had attempted to attend the 2016 event (originally set for last month – but eventually held on December 8, this year), when he was arrested.
Attorneys for Voices For Freedom (India) began the legal battle for the release of Resham Singh and have been battling long and hard until his release on Monday December 19, 2016.
VFF have revealed in an interview with Sikh24 that Bhai Resham Singh, over 60 years old, was denied medical assistance for diabetes and was regular shackled, violating the Supreme Court of India’s regulation prohibiting such shackling. He was continually threatened that he would be subjected to further ill-treatment due to his participation in raising a voice for the rights of minorities.
A White House petition seeking his release from illegal detention was launched by the VFF team, which garnered a huge response in only the first few days of it’s launch.
The VFF released a statement by Bhai Resham Singh after his release:
“I am deeply touched by the love and solidarity expressed by so many around the globe. I want to thank everyone who came forward to support me and my family. I would like to thank the US Embassy, my local Congressman Kevin McCarthy, my family, members of my organization, all human rights organizations, and our sangat for standing up for me. I would like to give my special thanks to Voices For Freedom attorney, Simranjit Singh who started working on my case within the few hours of my arrest. I would also request to close the petition as it has served its purpose. I will continue to fight for my legal rights. Thank you, everyone, for coming together and supporting me.”, Bhai Resham Singh, Senior Vice-President, Shrimoni Akali Dal(Akali), USA.
Currently Resham Singh is still trapped in India as the return of his passport has been refused. Further legal steps are being initiated for the release of his personal documents so that he may return home.
Jaspreet Kaur, a legal counsel for VFF USA confirmed that charges of sedition were regularly leveled against political activists in India. She said, “Sedition law in India is outdated, discriminatory and is currently manipulated by the Indian government against human rights activists.”
Jaspreet Kaur’s Indian counterpart, Simranjit Singh, continues to represent Bhai Resham Singh as the charge of sedition currently still stands. Pressure campaigning from the USA is also beginning to be mobilized so that the American citizen’s mistreatment by the Indian government may be brought to the attention of higher levels of US government.
Our new frontiers are
1) Space
2) Dark matter and Energy
3) Artificial intelligence .
4) Technological Singularity.
Anything but human rights or civil liberties for minorities, eh?
Evil spineless robots already control India, you are a India shoe licking slave and you’re from another planet called hell and I suggest you go back to your universe
aTrans national Politics is an interesting new field of development .
Let us see how it evolve over a period of TIME.
We must how ever never lose site of fact that we are all on a voyage to different planets and galaxies and universes.
Human rights and civil liberties are not a new field of development. Every single human being in the history of the human race who has regarded himself as being free has held those values to be true and self evident.
What I am saying is that trans National politics defeats Nations as a concept.
People do it as you have told of people like Jews .
Remember the world will have always have multiple concepts co-existing simultaneously from
1) Nationalism
2) Globalism
3) Racism
4) Fundamentalism
5) Casteism
What you are calling ‘trans national politics’ are internationally recognised codes of civilised behaviour which have evolved over time and after bitter experience (such the second world war) which prevent individual countries from indulging in persecuting minorities. They set up a standard of civil liberties and human rights which are to the benefit of all human beings and act directly against casteism, fundamentalism, racism and nationalism. Your problem with what you call ‘trans national politics’ is that wish to protect things that you believe such as institutionalised fundamentalism, casteism, racism and nationalism and that is why you don’t want oversight from NGOs like Amnesty International which will put a spotlight on your extra judicial excesses such as arbitrary arrest, disappearances and torture which you fundamentally believe a State has the right to indulge in in the nebulous name of security of the state. Countries that agree with your thinking that they should be allowed to do whatever they wish within their own borders to their own citizens are places like Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea – repressive authoritarian states that do not want notions of liberty entering the consciousness of their populations because they will not be able to micro-manage them. The shining example of what happens when the international community allows a country to do whatever it wishes is seen in Nazi Germany where the Nazis came to power in a convoluted elected way (using thug politics on the street to whip up anti-Jewish hysteria) and began changing the law to make it lawful and respectable to first discriminate against and then fatally persecute their Jewish population. Maybe you do not want to learn that lesson but the SIkhs have.
Sikhs are not divided like the Hindus in casts – that is why Sarbat Khalsa which is what it exactly means is held in our homeland. You be happy for the Sikhs from other countries to stay out of India and Let the Corrupt System abuse our brothers and sisters in Pujab. You really are disgrace to the human race. You think India is great typical sucking up to the RSS Hinduvata….. Chamcha ……
India is a great Nation.
The Genocide -3 of Sikhs was done by regime of 1984.
The Indian Sarbatt Khalsa should be done by Indian Sikhs.
The American, Britisher,French, Italian Sikhs should be neutral in the Indian Sarbatt Khalsa.
They may however give there constructive suggestions if sought.
They need to do their own country Sarbatt Khalsa.
‘The Indian Sarbatt Khalsa should be done by Indian Sikhs.’ You don’t allow Indian Sikhs to conduct an ‘Indian’ Sarbat Khalsa without arresting and intimidating them because you cannot control the sangat as they won;t listen to your puppets! ‘The American, Britisher,French, Italian Sikhs should be neutral in the Indian Sarbatt Khalsa.’ So the Jewish disapora should have kept quiet and done nothing as their Jewish brethren were being slaughtered by Hitler – a legally elected head of Government using laws to discriminate and fatally persecute his population of Jews? The Sikh Panth is indivisible no matter where Sikhs are because all look to Amritsar as their holiest city and ancestral Sikh homeland and heartland just as the Jew looks to Jerusalem and the Muslim to Mecca. You need to give up this ambition of trying to control the Sikhs and learn the art of peaceful co-existence
If we start having transnational politics .
We will make Nations irrelevant and the world will become Globalized.
Remember under this dispensation the concept of Sikhs as a Nation to will cease to Exist .
This ‘trans national politics’ you have come up with is just a euphemism which means you object to human rights and civil liberties because fundamentally you believe in an institutional stratified society where people ‘beneath’ you should just accept their lot and not dare to dream of improving it for themselves or their children. A child born to a Dalit whose only job so far has been to clean out the excrement from the street you insist should stay in that occupation generation after generation. Somehow you think that breaking that vicious cycle will lead to the collapse of your society when the truth is a rising tide lifts all boats. You already wish to refute the notion that the Sikhs are a nation of people so you are just being cynical, hypocritical and nonsensical in trying to suggest that Sikhs should fear globalisation out of self interest. SIkhs are interested not in themselves but the betterment of all mankind.
This is a new subject
TRANS NATIONAL POLITICS
which has come up in our discussion.
Let us see how it evolves .
‘TRANS NATIONAL POLITICS’ is a term you have come up with which is nothing more a euphemistic code for your desire not to accept internationally agreed standards of moral and legal behaviour when it comes to human rights and civil liberties because you wish to claim some kind of legitimacy to abuse Sikhs as and when you feel like. Is it any wonder that you want Amnesty International out of India and want to restrict the use of Internet and social media so that they don’t put spotlight on incidents which discriminate or persecute Sikhs. Too late for that, progress marches on and you cannot rely upon the past when disappearing, torturing and murdering Sikhs could go on without comment.
INDIA IS SO INHUMANE AND UNJUST! Disgusting nation,GOD WILL PUNISH ALL THOSE PEOPLE IN INDIA WHO TORTURE AND TERRORIZE PEOPLE, god will punish those inhumane monsters!!! India better start to change and start praying because a huge earthquake is happening soon
In India because god will always punish this nation because they attacked Siri darbar sahib and burnt many gurdwaras across India and killed Sikhs!! God will always punish this murderous Indian regime!!! The DOG DAYS WILL NEVER BE OVER FOR THE DISGUSTING NATION OF INDIA!!!!
Please mind your words before you speak like this. India is a democracy and has a Constitution that guarantees equal rights to all its Citizens. Indian Citizens on the other side , while enjoying the rights have to follow the duties enlisted in the Constitution. The first duty is to protect the National Borders, Unity and Integrity of India. I have a question for Sikhs Miss Kaur ( Miss Princess – Kaur means Princess Right? )……..MY Question is: WHEN 80% OF PUNJAB IS IN PAKISTAN, WHY DO YOU WANT KHALISTAN IN INDIA ? WHEN NANKANA SAHIB IS IN PAKISTAN , WHY DO YOU WANT KHALISTAN IN INDIA?, WHEN RANJIT SINGH’S MAHAL ( PALACE ) IS IN LAHORE (PAKISTAN ) , WHY DO YOU WANT KHALISTAN IN INDIA?? > When Pakistan was declared a Muslim Country and all Sikhs were chased away , India declared a secular Constitution and accommodated all religions. Even today More Muslims live in my Country India than Pakistan. Guru Teg Bahadur was beheaded by Aurangazeb , whose children created Pakistan and you love those people in Pakistan more than your Hindu,Sikh, Muslim Brothers in India who are your Genetic Ancestors…. We Love SIKHS because SIKHs protected us for 500 years when India was weak nation. We don’t differentiate people based on Religion. Indian DNA is Indian DNA,, just as Chinese Buddhist , Atheist and Taoist and Chinese Christian all have same DNA. Four Religions Originated from India , Buddhism , Sikhism , Jainism and Hinduism, Two came from outside Islam and Christianity. But We consider all the people as our Indian Brothers and Sisters as our DNA is the same. Anyone Trying to divide us based on our Caste , Color , Religion , Region , Language is considered as the , “ENEMY OF OUR NATION” ….. 1.25 Billion Indians vow to fight against the Enemy like yourself Miss Kaur. You are a terrorist, extremist, non-secular person , God will punish you not us…. Abusing India is like Looking at the Sky and Spitting…… Your spit will fall back on your face. #Sat Sri Akal #Jai Hind
INDIA IS A DEMOCRACY THAT TREATS ALL ITS CITIZENS AS EQUAL? YOURE A LOSER LIVING IN A BUBBLE, IT MIGHT HAVE A CONSTITUION THAT PROMOTES EQAUL RIGHTS BUT THE REALITY OF INDIA IS THAT THERE IS NO JUSTICE FOR MINORITIES, POLITCIANS IN INDIA ARE ALL SCUMBAGS, THEY MURDER INNOCENT PEOPLE AND WHY DONT MASS MURDERERS EVER GET ARRESTED? PEOPLE WHO INVOLEVED IN SIKH GENOCIDE ROAM THE STREETS AND IN COME THESE INDIA DEMOCRACY WARRIORS SPREADING LIES THAT INDIA IS EVEN A REAL DEMOCRACY, GO CONTINUE TO LICK THE SHOES OF CORRUPT INDIAN POLITICIANS AND THAT UGLY INDIAN FLAG THAT DRIPS OF BLOOD OF SIKHS AND MINORITIES
LMAO IM A TERRORIST?!! LMAO SAYS THE MAN WHO CONTINUES TO
SUPPORT STATE TERRORIST REGIME INDIA… LISTEN UP LOSER, I SPEAK
THE TRUTH ABOUT INDIA AND IF
THE TRUTH IS TOO HARD FOR YOU TO SWALLOW OR SEE, THEN CONTINUE SCREAMING JAI HIND, JAI HIND YOUR PATHETIC ASS, JAI HIND INDIA WHERE THERES NO PROPER PLACE TO SHIT FOR MAJORITY OF COUNTRY, MAYBE THATS WHY A DOG LIKE YOU LOVES INDIA SP MUCH BECAUSE LIKE ANIMALS, YOU CAN CRAP AND PEE ANYWHERE
‘Pratap Singh’ is it? Or is it RSS Harinder? Or Harish Sharma? You would think you’d at least make an effort when you try to post on this Sikh website with a Sikh name you’d know something – anything – about Sikh history or theology but no you come and declare your ignorance to the world. ‘Miss Princess – Kaur means Princess Right?’ Really? Tell me do you know the name ‘Singh’ means lion? Let me enlighten you. Nankana Sahib is in present day Pakistan. This is the birth place of the first Guru of the Sikhs Guru Nanak. We have nine succedding Gurus – all of whom are founders of the Sikh faith as they each in turn built upon the foundations of their predecessor culminating in the inauguration of the eleventh and final eternal Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib. Do you know the birth places of these nine other Gurus, which present day country they are in now? How about the birth places of the original Panj Pyare – the very first five Singhs to come into existence, do you which present day country they were each born in? How about the holiest Gurdwara, the spiritual and cultural focus of the SIkh world, do you which present day country Darbar Sahib is in? Let me clarify as you are just pretending to be a Sikh – you call it Golden Temple, you know the one that was attacked by which country exactly? Anyway it is in a historical Sikh city founded by the fourth Sikh Guru himself, called Amritsar which is in which present day country? Ever heard of Anandpur Sahib? It is where the Khalsa was born and Sikh baptism and the five kakkars was established – care to which present day country that is in? How about the five Takhts of Sikhi? Ever heard of them? They are the supreme seats, or thrones of temporal power and religious authority in Sikhism historically and religiously responsible for Gurmat decisions, proclamations and corporal policy governing both secular and spiritual issues of significant concern to Sikh society. There are five, do you want to know which present day country ALL five are situated in? Amritsar, Anandpur, Nanded, Patna and Talwandi Sabo – that means 4 of the 5 Takhts are in Punjab and I don’t mean the Pakistani part. Maharajah Ranjit Singh was a king amongst the Sikhs – he was NOT a Guru but ruler of a Khalsa Raj Singh Empire, a sovereign territory that encompassed not just present day Pakistan but also most of Punjab in India as well as Jammu, Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. You would do well to remember HP and Haryana did not exist and were under Sikh rule also when you try to use fallacious argument Sikhs should only think about their homeland in Pakistan. As for Sikhs ‘were chased away’ when Pakistan was created, they were forced largely to move from one part of Punjab to the other – Punjab was then and is remains now ancestral Sikh heartland and homeland so don;t try to portray us as some kind of refugees / immigrants given asylum graciously by you. Pakistan was defeated time and time again by Sikh soldiers courage and surrendered to Sikh General; our sacrifices of land and blood far exceed in proportion our population size compared to yours and you are right to acknowlegde you owe the SIkhs a 500 hundred year old debt. And how do you repay that debt? You rebuff the grievances laid out in the Anandpur Sahib resolutions, cleave Punjab into two to create Haryana, loot our water, deny us the right for decades to marry unless we register under the Hindu marriage act and then attack Darbar Sahib. Some love you have given us. As for your grasp on genetics and idea of DNA – it is stupid in the extreme. Sikhism makes no claim that you have to be of Indian subcontinental descent to be a proper Sikh and declares that Bharat prejudice to be absurd and an insult to the One God who has created all mankind as being equal. All human beings no matter what country they come from are brothers and sisters. You reveal your own petty small minded bigotry and ignorance and then compound it by calling someone who has a different opinion to you and voices it as being a ‘terrorist’! Does she not have the right to dissent and express her views – challenge and correct them if she is factually incorrect but refrain from the reactionary response. After all we allow RSS Harinder to continually post his poisononous propaganda on this website as his views can easily be refuted and proven to be cynical, ignorant and hypocritical. Do the same, that is how civilised people behave but then again you are of the ghar wapsi mindset with your stupid reductive conceit that Islam and Christianity are somehow alien – not of Indian DNA indeed – just because they originated in other parts of the world. Look at the ideas those religions contain and criticise those rather than make pretence that they have no value because they are not Indian enough for you. Oh, when you say ‘Sat Sri Akal ‘ that salutation means GOD is great not Gods which puts Sikhism in the same monotheistic boat as the ‘foreigner’ Christianity and Islam you object to.
Hey, What happened to my Comment. Is this website also a propaganda Channel?? Pleas Display my comment.
Your comment is displayed you
Disgusting shoe licking dog! ?
Your comment was displayed because unlike you we Sikhs believe in free speech and free thought without being accused of sedition.
INdia is a sham! Pitiful infrastructure, backwards cultural indoctrination. Its just stolen empires lumped together by a foreign power to keep the area unstable. Every fascist regime eventually falls, India is on the cliff. The lion is awake. RUN.
INdia is a sham! Pitiful infrastructure, backwards cultural indoctrination. Its just stolen empires lumped together by a foreign power to keep the area unstable. Every fascist regime eventually falls, India is on the cliff. The lion is awake. RUN.
Protection of human rights is universal. Freedom of speech, religion are the core principles of democracy. If India cannot provide these basics rights please declare that in India it is Hindu Raj so that all the minorities know where they stand.
India is a Hindu Brahmin corporate regime, look at videos of Arundhati Roy, she is one of the few Indian professors who openly criticizes this disgusting Indian regime and tells the truth about how many
Humans rights violations Indian government commits
Americans are doing Sarbat Khalsa in US, but Akal Thakat is in Sikh homeland Punjab. Therefore, it could never be just US specific, or UK specific. Besides, politics is never country specific ( that’s why we have foreign policy). The issue is much deeper: Freedom of religion, gathering, speech. Citizen of a democratic country access such rights. A Hindu from RSS is not arrested to talk about’Hindu being a great religion and rallies”. But a Sikh is arrested for organizing Srabat Khalsa, a religious gathering and his right provided under the Constitution.
American Sikhs need to do American Sarbatt Khalsa .
Indian Sikhs Should do Indian Sarbattt Khalsa .
Our politics should be country specific.
Doesn’t matter what country Sikhs come from they are all members of the same Sikh Panth. We know you just want to divide and rule us but they are our brethren, kith and kin.