Dal Khalsa president�Harpal Singh Cheema and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said the SC�re-articulated its earlier guidelines on the matter. They said on one side the�latest judgment of the SC reinforces the already set parameters, on the other�its a snub to those state governments and the police that damns the rule of�law.
They said the SC ruled that the sedition charges can be filed if an act or�acts intended to subvert the government through violent means. Ironically, most�of the state governments have been overlooking these guidelines while fixing�their political opponents and critics.
To drive their point home, they referred to sedition charges slapped against�JNU students, Prof SAR Geelani, organizers of Sikh conclave at Chaba, Amnesty�group and actor Ramya. They said the governments and the police of the�respective states invoked the charges under draconian laws on flimsy grounds
�against these people despite being aware of the legal definition of sedition�set by the Supreme Court.
They further said there were loud talks for educating the police about SC�guidelines, but wondered whether the people in power would take initiative to�do so as its they (rulers), who mis(use) the police and the laws to fix their�adversaries.�
They said �we have grim hope that in the prevailing political�culture of intolerance in India, the governments of the day and their�handpicked police officials would respect and restore the rule of law. ��
People who live in India must not work against the Nation.
The Nation in turn must look after all it’s citizens irrespective of the group they belong to.
It is not ‘working against the nation’ to protest and dissent and raise awareness of grievances. That is the essential component of a democracy. Sikhs don’t want to be ‘looked after by the state’ – we are a sovereign people who want only to have our human rights, homeland and identity to be respected as was promised when India was created by both Nehru and Mahatma Ghandi to induce us to become part of India rather than reform our own Khalsa Raj (as existed under Maharajah Ranjit Singh). As Sikhs we have suffered disproportionately more than any other population of the subcontinent in terms of the liberation struggle (Ghadr party, Shaheeds Kartar Singh Sarabha, Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh et al) and our heartland and lives lost in partition to create India and the same blood sacrifice in war to keep her safe against Pakistan and China so stop this disgusting insult of suggesting Sikhs have ever worked against the nation. We Sikhs are the ones who have upheld her honour and continue to be the torch bearers of her democratic and egalitarian values when you jingoistically prattle about ‘anti nationalism’ having no sense of what patriotism actually is.