BATHINDA, Punjab—Sikh activists from North America and Europe have jointly filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) against Punjab government’s denial of permission to hold Sarbat Khalsa 2016 and retaliatory crackdown on Sikhs in Punjab.
The complaint names Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Badal, Home Minister Sukhbir Badal, DGP Suresh Arora and Bathinda Deputy Commissioner Basant Garg as the government officials responsible for curbing religious freedom of Sikhs and illegal detention of hundreds of Sarbat Khalsa activists.
November 09 complaint, filed with the UNHRC Under Special Communication Procedure alleges that “the police crackdown and illegal detention of Sikhs have been conducted because they wanted to hold peaceful global religious gathering the Sarbat Khalsa on November 10 at Talwandi Sabo, Punjab”. “Sarbat Khalsa was called to discuss Sikh issues including: repeated and ongoing incidents of desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism, since 2015; and Killing of several Sikhs by the police firing while peacefully protesting against the desecration of Sikh holy book”. the complaint further stated.
The complaint lodged through rights group “Sikhs For Justice” (SFJ) will be will be taken up by the UN’s Working Group on Communications, which consists of five independent and highly qualified experts to assess the merits of the complaints. The current members of the Working Group belong to China, Argentina, Russia, Austria and Ethiopia.
“Denying permission to hold Sarbat Khalsa 2016 is a blatant violations of Sikhs’ religious freedom as guaranteed by Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, stated attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ. “
“We will present evidence to UN Rapporteur on Religious Freedom that 2015 Sarbat Khalsa attended by millions, was a peaceful religious gathering which counters Badal’s government claims”, added attorney Pannun.
Sikh activists Amardeep Singh Purewal USA, Paramjeet Singh Pamma UK, Joga Singh UK, Harjeet Singh Holland and Ranbir Singh Soodan Canada who filed complaint with UNHCR were coordinating an international campaign in support of the Gurmatas that was supposed to be presented during global religious congregation Sarbat Khalsa at Talwandi Sabo on Nov 10.
The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine incidents and governmental actions that are incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In addition, the pro-freedom Sikh body Dal Khalsa also strongly condemned the preventive detentions of organizers of Sarbat Khalsa 2016 and other Sikh activists across the state. In a press note shared with Sikh24, Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh strongly condemned the illegal arrests of Sikh activists and organizers of Sarbat Khalsa 2016. He has said that although the Dal Khalsa doesn’t properly adhere to the ideology of Sarbat Khalsa organizers but Dal Khalsa was plaintiff of allowance of independent exercise of one’s belief and ideology. “Punjab government is behaving like a Dictatorial regime to suppress voice of Sikhs,” he added.
Why is exercising our democratic right to freedom of association, freedom of thought and freedom of religion – ALL FUNDAMENTAL DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES – suddenly going to create a law and order problem? Oh, yes because Sikhs must not be allowed to express their democratic rights, eh? They can only do in elections which you can manipulate by arbitrarily arresting, releasing, rearresting and harrasing any opposition politician and indeed attack – the head of the AAP had his car stoned in Ludhiana by your Badals so he could not even attend a rally, virtually chased out of town. The Sarbat Khalsa has nothing to do with violence but about Sikhs talking about their own religious affairs as is their right guaranteed under constitution – we are the ones upholding both the letter and the spirit of the law whilst you pervert it in order to keep corrupt politicians in power who you feel can control the Sikhs.
If you are going to create a law and order problem then the state security will be forced to act which in extreme circumstance may lead upto op blue star like military operation.
Genocide of a community may take place if it indulges in killings of innocent people.
So in Sarbatt Khalsa don’t disturb law and order or indulge in violence .
The best option for it is elections 2017 Punjab
Also your comment ‘extreme circumstances leading up to bluestar’ yet again you are looking at the wrong causality, Bhindranwale died in 1984 but the injustices against Sikhs started decades before that when promises and assurances given to Sikhs to join India (and reject the setting up of their own Sikh state) by Nehru and the Congress Party were reneged upon. The sharing of state capital (Chandigarh) between two states, the redistribution of river water(the Punjab means 5 rivers and water is essential to Punjab’s history and agricultural base), the denial of a Sikh marriage act recognising the Anand Karaj (which effectively meant that Sikhs were being counted as Hindus), the rejection of Punjabi as the language of Punjab, the cleaving off of Punjab’s land to form another state territory with Haryana, etc – the grievances are well documented in the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions formulated in the sixties and seventies. The truth of what I am telling about communal causality is further demonstrated in the 1992 Bombay and 2002 anti Muslim ‘riots’ – these events would not have occurred had the apparent acceptibility of collective punishment of a religious minority been set in precedent with the anti Sikh pogroms of 1984. That communal intolerance to religious minorities is how India and Pakistan were born and it is an underlying problem that Hindus (as they form a majority in the Indian subcontinent and it is always incumbent on the ruling people whether they be white South African or Hindu Indian) have to be big enough to recognise and be magnanimous enough to resolve for the sake of the greater good. The integrity (not to mention honour and morality) of the Nation would be guaranteed by this carrot approach rather than the stick which always fails in the end and only leads to bloodshed and suffering of innocents.
The Nirankaris are a heretical sect which were first supported by the British in their divide and rule policy to try and neuter the Sikhs pre-independence. Indira Gandhi resurrected this policy for exactly the same nefarious reason during the 1970s as her Congress Party could not overhaul the Sikh political party at that time the Akali Dal through the ballot box. The Sikhs had been peacefully demanding their rights from Independence in 1947 as it became clearer that Nehru having wooed / bamboozled Master Tara Singh and SIkh leadership into siding with India (instead of Pakistan or re-establishing their own sovereign Sikh state such as the Khalsa Raj of Maharajah Ranjit Singh which encompassed territory from Kashmir, Punjab (north of the Sutlej) and lands up to the Khyber) had no intention of honouring promises made. This lack of faith from Nehru led to the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions to address Sikh grievances over two decades before Bhindranwale even came on the scene although you are correct to note that the murders of innocent SIkhs by the state sponsored and protected Nirankaris led to Sikh backlash. You are incorrect however to continually raise spectre of Empire’s armies – the British Empire was and is dead and had no involvement whatsover in oppressing Sikhs in Punjab during the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. As for the American EMpire, the worst you can say is that they remained quite when they knew the extent of human righst violations by both Indira and Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress Governments (as revealed in Snowden’s leaks of US Embassy cables during those times). The fact that the State and PUnjab Government made Punjab into a police state is not excusable by saying that the human rights and civil rights abuses that then then subsequently ensued against the SIkhs was inevitable (as whenever governments create police states such abuses occur) as those politicians, those police officers, those army personnel, those judges et al were all fellow Indian citizens and should have treated Sikhs as their brothers. The sadistic and illegal treatment the SIkhs were subjected to (the legacy of which continues to this very day) is not excusable and those who engaged in it should be brought to book not because of the Geneva conventions (which apply to war combatants) but because of human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
You don’t understand relationship between state and religion.
It is not possible to run any state on basis of religion alone.
Sarbatt Khalsa will create insecurity in minds of non Sikhs. Who are integral part of Punjab.
We need to live with our neighbours in spirit of love thy neighbours.
When you talk of relationship between state and religion I remind you of the pledges made to the Sikhs before India was created to induce them to throw their lot in with India rather than reform their own independent sovereign Sikh State which was the Khalsa Raj of Maharajah Ranjit Singh before the annexation by the British of the Kingdom of Punjab. Although a Sikh state this was a secular kingdom which won the loyalty of all its subjects including Hindus and Muslims which shows that Sikhs in charge have no interest in discriminating against other religions because our Gurus told us clearly to treat them as fellow human beings first – Guru Tegh Bahadur was put to death for the sake of the Hindus to keep their religious freedom so do not talk to falsely that Sikhs need to learn how to love their neighbour after all the blood sacrifices we have made for you over the centuries including chasing the Afghan to retrieve kidnapped Hindu girls which we returned unharmed back to their villages. 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’s 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”. Now talk of Sikhs breaking the Constitution when bad faith has been given to them after 1947 despite these assurances. We are the most loyal people of India because we keep our word.
Go ahead and do it from my side.
But be careful no one is manipulating us for their vested interest.
You should not become pawns of forces more powerful and clever than what we are.
Don’t push back Punjab to another blue star or another genocide-4
What are you talking about ‘don’t push back to bluestar and genocide’? why should Sikhs be subjected to state sponsored violence and murder for just wanting to exercise their democratic right to assembly, association and freedom of thought and religion? Why do you feel so threatened by civil liberties and human rights? As for vested interests and manipulation of Sikhs – really, with your known support for the RSS and the Badals that is pot calling kettle black.
As always Bhai Ji M Singh you have said it all in your short statement – Waheguru shower you with his kirpa always.
If people getting together, deliberating, and choosing their own representatives, as they have done for hundreds of years, is deemed illegal in a ‘democracy’ what would happen in a dictatorship?
Sarbatt Khalsa now needs to be done in a different way as Sikhs are distributed globally.
It could be done
1) Online
2) Representative from various countries meeting in different countries.
3) WhatsApp or other social media.
Anywhere but in the Sikh homeland and heartland of Punjab, eh? That would really make it easier for you and your Hinduvta mafia to claim that any decisions reached by the Sarbat Khalsa don’t somehow apply to Sikhs in India and that there was a ‘division’ between the Sikh Panth so your cronies Badal, SGPC et al could continue their charade of presenting a ‘legitimate’ face of Sikhs which you control. We know your cynical game. Tell me what right does Badal have to tell Sikhs not to gather to discuss their own religious affairs which they have been doing for centuries in their own homeland and indeed arbitraily arrest, release, re-arrest and harass them? What crime have they committed other than expressing their democratic right to assembly and freedom of speech to discuss and debate our own religious affairs?
A religious gathering is very prone to Sabotage.
Shooting could take place by mischievous elements to provoke anger of assembly against govt.
Also no govt in power today would like an assembly opposed to it.
The best available route for the assembly is the 2017 elections.
Your utterly cynical and hypocritical stance is betrayed in this answer you have given. Absolutely no crime has been committed so there are no grounds whatsoever for arbitrary mass arrests, release and rearrests and harassment which are therefore direct breaches of civil liberties and abuse of police and political power. You cannot try to claim democratic credentials when you are prepared to justify that. Any pretence that you had of holding the moral high ground when you have lost the legal one is also exposed when you then try to assert that ‘shooting could take place by mischievous elements’ to disrupt the gathering! I would remind you that no incidents of violence have happened at Sarbat Khalsa (although I accept your Badal friends and their Hinduvta comrades would most likely seek to create such incidents in order to derail the Sarbat Khalsa) and indeed the only shootings have been done are by the Punjab Police themselves murdering in cold blood in broad daylight two Sikhs peacefully and democratically protesting beadbi of our Guru Granth Sahib last year. Those police officers have been given complete political and judicial protection and have not subsequently faced even suspension let alone arraignment and conviction for cold blooded murder. Take away the police guns then and there will no risk of shooting if that was really your fear. But that is not your genuine concern but rather that if Sikh masses get together in sufficient numbers to make decisions and opinions known of the Panth’s dissatisfaction with the SGPC and their Badal masters (themselves on a Hinduvta leash) you will be unable to deny and indeed ignore our demands for justice. ‘A religious gathering is prone to sabotage’ – tell me will then will you support and advocate banning the Hindu Kumbh Mela then? After all that is as semi regular as the Sarbat Khalsa, certainly has millions more people gathering in religious assembly, costs millions of crores to police and almost always results in the death of dozens of its attendees usually trampling themselves to death in some unfortunate incident. With recent tensions stirred up by the RSS and tensions with Pakistan that festival too could be said to subject to your ‘mischievious elements causing disruption there so for the sake of public order surely the Kumbh Mela should also be banned and its proponents arrested and harassed if you logically and equitably extend your objection to Sikhs holding their Sarbat Khalsa in their own Sikh homeland and heartland of Punjab? Of course you don’t object to Kumbh Mela as that is not a Sikh festival gathering so let us dispense with your pretence at being democratic when you cynically suggest Sikhs can only voice their dissent and indeed talk about their own religious affairs in a state election when you know full well you have and intend to harass and arrest even leaders of political parties standing for election. The AAP leader comes to Ludhiana and has his car stoned and attacked by Badal supporters so he is effectively chased out of town and the police do nothing. Sikhs coming to attend the Sarbat Khalsa from abroad are similarly arbitraliy harassed arrested, released and re-arrested on pretexts that cannot stand in a court of law even. Your true colours are revealed in your statement that no ruling government likes to see public voices of opposition and dissent (which begs the question what has supposedly ‘secular’ Punjab Government and self admitted ‘non-Panthic Akali Badal party got to do with religious affairs of the Sikh kaum?). IN a democracy no government has the right to stamp on the people going peaceably about their business purely because it does not want them to talk in what it considers to be in a manner detrimental to the ruling parties best interests of staying in power. That my friend is called autocracy and leads to a fascist state of thought police. If you try to choke off grassroots feelings of people and think to manipulate them by intimidation and perverting the course of natural justice you are creating exactly the problem you are trying to avoid: people will lose faith in the establishment and governmental system as we have seen in Brexit and election of Donald Trump who successfully tapped into a feeling that a political system was rigged against the common man’s interests. I know you don’t want Sikhs to express their religious identity but you are risking our democracy by trying to repress and control them both unethically and illegally when they are clearly trying to gather and discuss internal religious affairs (which are supposedly guaranteed by our constitution) as is their civil and human right. If you keep pulling at the lion’s mane whilst he is sleeping let alone try to shear his hair you cannot be surprised when he wakes in rage. Don’t keep repeating the mistakes of the past and just adding to the sense of grievance and injustice the Sikhs have felt since 1947.
I said there are forces who have hurt us for a long time including doing genocide’s.
Be it Mughals ,Britishers,to as recent as 1984 regime of modern India.
We need to prevent any further avoidable violence against our people.
Any gathering could be exploited by a rouge carrying out shooting and blaming it on the present govt.
This could lead to a chaos and anger in society.
As for kumbh it is a religious gathering.
Our Sarbatt Khalsa has political overtones and so is prone to Sabotage.
2017 elections is the right way to go about .
Because you are not a Sikh you obviously fail to understand that in Sikhi religion and temporal life go hand in hand and this was decreed by the Gurus themselves as indicated in the principle of Miri Piri which your Badal infiltrated SGPC tried to repudiate last year. The Akal Takht was built specifically for Sikhs to decide their religious affairs in the world and is situated directly across form the spiritual fonr of the Harimandir Sahib itself. Your attempt to try and castrate the Sikhs by trying to heretically divorce their religious tenents from their socio-political tenents shows very clearly what your agenda is – to make Sikhi nothing more than some irrelevant ‘do religion only in your home and turn a blind eye to social justice outside’ faith of mere convenience. It is extremely telling that you would not ban the Kumbh Mela where so many people regularly die as your fear is only about Sikhs getting together and bypassing the SGPC and Akali Badal who you have invested so much time and money to use as a means of controlling the Sikh people.
Chardi Kala always!!!
With Waheguru’s kirpa Justice will be done!
well done!!!