marine
Mann
The Dal Khalsa has given a call for Punjab Bandh on 3rd November to protest Sikhs being denied justice after the November 1984 holocaust. Schools and colleges are closed. Train and bus transport has been suspended. All commercial shops in Amritsar are closed but the office of SGPC is functioning as usual ! It is painful that the premier Sikh institution does not identify itself with the Sikh pain. Or is it a political decision ?
Since November 1984, ten Commissions have been formed by the Government to look into the Sikh massacre and nothing has come out of them. Even the Sikh leadership raises the issue during elections for Congress bashing but has never consistently pursued the issue to reach it’s logical conclusion. Sikhs are known to resist injustice to others,what happened when injustice was meted out to them ? It is not on the agenda of any Sikh institution to fight for justice. Delhi based lawyer Sardar Harvinder Singh Phoolka is the only person still fighting the injustice in courts in his individual capacity. Neither SGPC nor Delhi Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC) has extended any help to him. In fact the Delhi Sikh leaders cosy up to the prime offenders of instigating mobs to kill and burn Sikhs in Delhi. An ex-President of DGPC Chandok honoured Jagdish Tytler with a siropa and the Jathedar of Akal Takht found nothing wrong with that and exonerated him !! Sajjan Kumar’s proximity with Paramjit Singh Sarna is public knowledge. Avtar Singh Hit’s behaviour with the Sikh women widowed by the massacre has been documented in the media.
In Punjab there has only been lip service to demanding justice. It is for the first time that Shiromani Akali Dal President has approached Human Rights Commission to highlight the unresolved issue of Sikh massacre.
Since it affects the ordinary living Sikhs still awaiting justice, it is not a dead issue. Despite a minuscule base of Dal Khalsa, the bandh call was a total success because the people identified with the issue. It did not matter who called for it , the point was it provided an opportunity to the hurt Sikh psyche to show it’s hurt. The least one could expect of SGPC was to show solidarity with the cause. It would have been even better if SGPC had taken a lead in it.
Since November 1984, ten Commissions have been formed by the Government to look into the Sikh massacre and nothing has come out of them. Even the Sikh leadership raises the issue during elections for Congress bashing but has never consistently pursued the issue to reach it’s logical conclusion. Sikhs are known to resist injustice to others,what happened when injustice was meted out to them ? It is not on the agenda of any Sikh institution to fight for justice. Delhi based lawyer Sardar Harvinder Singh Phoolka is the only person still fighting the injustice in courts in his individual capacity. Neither SGPC nor Delhi Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC) has extended any help to him. In fact the Delhi Sikh leaders cosy up to the prime offenders of instigating mobs to kill and burn Sikhs in Delhi. An ex-President of DGPC Chandok honoured Jagdish Tytler with a siropa and the Jathedar of Akal Takht found nothing wrong with that and exonerated him !! Sajjan Kumar’s proximity with Paramjit Singh Sarna is public knowledge. Avtar Singh Hit’s behaviour with the Sikh women widowed by the massacre has been documented in the media.
In Punjab there has only been lip service to demanding justice. It is for the first time that Shiromani Akali Dal President has approached Human Rights Commission to highlight the unresolved issue of Sikh massacre.
Since it affects the ordinary living Sikhs still awaiting justice, it is not a dead issue. Despite a minuscule base of Dal Khalsa, the bandh call was a total success because the people identified with the issue. It did not matter who called for it , the point was it provided an opportunity to the hurt Sikh psyche to show it’s hurt. The least one could expect of SGPC was to show solidarity with the cause. It would have been even better if SGPC had taken a lead in it.
