Black Cat turned cop - Gurmeet Singh Pinky

Chandigarh (February 4, 2012): Four Days back, on 31 January, 2012 Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed an appeal filed by controversial Punjab Police inspector, Gurmeet Singh alias Pinky seeking acquittal in a murder case.

Pinky once a Police black cat, had been awarded life imprisonment by a trial court in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar that held him guilty of murdering Avtar Singh, a 20-year-old and the only son of a Ludhiana resident.

A division bench headed by Justice S. S. Saron on 31 January, 2012 dismissed an appeal filed by Gurmeet Singh Pinky wherein he had challenged the life imprisonment awarded to him by the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Jagadhri at Yamuna Nagar in Haryana on October 18, 2006. Pinky murdered the Ludhiana youth on January 7, 2001 following a minor altercation.

As the accused Gurmeet Singh Pinky was allowed to remain on influential position in police department during trial, the trial was first transferred from Punjab to Chandigarh and then to Haryana. A few judges had also recused from the case citing personal reasons.

The other five accused were acquitted by the lower court at Yamuna Nagar. An appeal seeking conviction of those acquitted was also filed by the father of the deceased. This appeal, however, was dismissed by the high court.

Black Cat Phenomena and Mass level violation in Punjab:

It is notable that in order to defame the Sikh militant movement of 1980s and to breakdown its’ popular mass suport base the Indian state introduced the policy of “black cats”. Black cats were criminal people such as goons/gangsters or smugglers employed secretly by the State to act for it’s police or armed forced as “Sikh Militants”.

These black cats pretending to be Sikh freedom fighters committed atrocities on people of Punjab including civilian killings. This way police targetted both participants and supporters of Sikh freedom movement and at the same time defamed the struggle.

After 1990s such police cats were rehabilitated by the Indian State under fictitious names, after being shown as dead. Some of them, such as Pinky, were later formally employed in the Punjab police. Many innocent Sikh civilians were killed by the police showing them as so-called Sikh militants (persons used to work under the names of Sikh militants, but in reality they were  police cats.

Punjab’s former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, who first introduced black cats in mid-1980 has admitted the fact of existence and black deeds of these cats in his auto-biography “Bullet for Bullet”.

In 2006 then Director General of Punjab Sarabjeet Singh Virk admitted that Indian State and Punjab police has rehabilitated more than 300 such police cats after showing the as dead.

Punjab’s mass murderer, KPS Gill (former DGP of Punjab), who is presented as “Super Cop” by Indian state and media has also admitted the use of black cats.

One of US Diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks also confirm the use of black cats  and secret army called sena kept and used by Punjab police officer Izhar Alam.

“With regard to former Senior Superintendent Punjab Police (Jalandhar) Mohammad Izhar Alam, we can confirm that he now holds the position of Additional Director General (Administration) Punjab Police, a senior police posting. During the insurgency, he assembled a large, personal paramilitary force of approximately 150 men known as the “Black Cats” or “Alam Sena” (“Alam’s Army”) that included cashiered police officers and rehabilitated Sikh terrorists. The group had reach throughout the Punjab and is alleged to have had carte blanche in carrying out possibly thousands of staged “encounter killings.” (NOTE: Former Director General Punjab Police KPS Gill publicly praised the group, saying the Punjab police could not function without them. End Note.) Herkewaljit Singh told us that Alam was “at the top of the list” in authorizing encounters during the insurgency period”.

- Excerpt from US cable leaked by Wikileaks.

(Full Story by Sikh Siyasat) | (Full Cable @ Wikileaks CableViewer)

Gurmeet Singh Pinky was one of them. He was never charged with the violations he committed during militancy period and was convicted in a murder case committed after that period. He was allowed to remain on post even during the pendency of trial.

Mass violators of Punjab enjoy blind impunity even now days.

• SCI’s decision would impose blind impunity zone in Punjab: SSF
• Two decades of impunity: SCI set aside CBI probe against police officers accused of practising enforced disappearances
• Human Rights Abuses in Punjab and Wikileaks: Alam Sena’s existence find mention in US diplomatic cable
• Don’t patronize Alam-Virk-Saini, all are “killers of Sikhs”, Dal Khalsa to Badal and Amrinder
• Bharat in Bhasmasur mode – by Sirdar Gurtej Singh (IAS)

Readers are requested to visit the source blog to read more writings of Sirdar Gurtej Singh.

- Sikh Siyasat]

Before the events relating to the recent violent suppression of the Akali political agitation are recalled, a few of the established parameters within which a meaningful discussion can take place, may be mentioned. It is now settled beyond a doubt, that the agitation suppressed by Indira Gandhi backed by the permanent cultural majority’s (pcm) orthodoxy, was political in nature and had demands that were perfectly legitimate and constitutional. Several times an agreed upon solution was found to the issues raised. Every time, the agitating Akali Dal accepted the compromise and every time Indira Gandhi, the other party, rescinded it. She indicated thereby that she was not in favour of a peaceful settlement. Itching for shedding Sikh blood, she aimed at escalating it into a Sikh agitation. The only rationale given for the army attack on the Guru’s Darbar at Amritsar was that India wanted to put an end to militant activity supposedly originating in the shrine. This was factually incorrect as forty other shrines were also attacked. The end was not achieved as the escalation of violent activity was a thousand times more in the decade that followed it than it had been for a decade ending with June 1984. It is also certain now that the much maligned Sant Baba Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhinderanwale never made a bid for Khalistan but was supporting the political agitation of the Akali Dal based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. It is also obvious that except for a few in 1984, no political murders ever took place within the Darbar complex. It is not explained to this day, why the security forces spread thick all over the state were not able to apprehend murderers, who committed murders all over the state and in Delhi. No explanation is given why the security forces never apprehended murderers who according to it rode forth from the Darbar complex and returned to it after committing the crime although the Darbar was under a constant siege by the para-military forces for the entire period of the Akali agitation?

2). Most of the writings on the events of the bloody decades have been done by journalists feigning ignorance of the political processes. They chose to have no perspective of history or of the spiritual aspirations of a people as independent as they were entitled to be under the prevalent basic law. The journalists substituted the lack of skills and perspective with an ample measure of newly acquired urban snobbery. They appeared to be supporting the orthodox hegemonic approach of the overwhelming pcm wedded to solving every political problem violently according to its tradition. The resultant academic discourse is vitiated by ample contempt for the supposedly ‘less intelligent — rural underclass,’ vitriolic language with destructive intent is thrown in for special effect. Many writings that have appeared are from the perspective of the megalomaniac fascist Punjabi Hindu politicians who believe that since the Hindus form an overwhelming majority of the country’s population, they own every inch of India as they own their karyana shops. Their contempt for the rural folk is endless and their hatred for the Sikhs and the Sikh faith knows no bounds.

3). Voluntarily worn blinkers ignore the reality that Indian civilisation has produced a society that is excessively violent right from antiquity. Myriad of the hymns in the Rigveda advertised as ‘mankind’s oldest book’ sum up prayers for destruction of the perceived enemy (read, political rivals). Mahabharta enjoys scriptural status and is all about violence. All the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon are shown as armed to the teeth in the images that are worshipped in every Hindu household. Nineteen hundred and forty seven was perhaps the bloodiest year in the history of the pcm. The trend has not abated since. Every crisis that has confronted the pcm has been resolved violently. Violence and intolerance have always dictated relationships with other cultures, societies and nations as can well be judged by the fate of Dalits in Brahmanic India.

4). While orthodoxy in the faith of the pcm is characterised by the ubiquitous traits of violence, intolerance of dissent and attempts at acquiring political hegemony over neighbouring cultural and political entities, in the Sikh faith it has an entirely different connotation. It implies assuming responsibility for promoting universal brotherhood and establishing all inclusive institutions (for instance langar). In a word, Sikh orthodoxy stands for acting God in history.

5). On her return to political pre-eminence in 1980 after the notorious suspension of human rights during the Emergency, Indira Gandhi unveiled her ambition and started exhibiting a pronounced propensity to emerge as leader of the chauvinistic section of the pcm. In her new incarnation of goddess Durga, she did not forget the bottomless bowl in which the deity drinks her favourite drink – human blood. She was in her best form during the attack on the Guru’s Darbar which she ordered to commence on the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan. To see that she entrapped the largest number of innocent Sikh pilgrims to quench her newly acquired thirst, the curfew was relaxed for a few hours before the attack so as to kill as many pilgrims as could possibly be killed. A victim of this mindset, she issued the diabolically inhuman orders, “I don’t give a damn if the Golden Temple and the whole of Amritsar is destroyed, I want Bhinderanwale dead.” By obeying these orders, her political supporters throughout the country and the army generals stood recruited as members of the eighteenth century criminal sect that thrived on thugee. Its mode of worship was the cold blooded murder of unsuspecting pilgrims and travellers.

6). In My Truth, Indira Gandhi indicates that she subscribed to the political theory evolved by the pcm after 1947. It affirmed that the pcm has the exclusive right to rule the country. The census figures of three decades that preceded 1984 showed that the Sikh population was increasing at an impressive rate. Hindus of the Punjab, about whom she pretended to be deeply concerned presented the state of species going politically extinct. It appeared that the Khalsa, the true model for Indian resurgence was slowly, but surely asserting itself. She concluded that it was time to take decisive action to check the growth of the Sikh faith and the spread of the Khalsa consciousness. She dreamt of swallowing up the Sikh faith just as the Jain and Buddhist faiths had been eradicated from India. She knew very well that she would be pandering to a popular communal sentiment and some like A. B. Vajpayee were anxiously waiting in the wings to thrust the title of ‘Durga Incarnation’ on her.

7). Being similarly inspired, Nehru, Patel and Munshi, the representatives of the pcm in the Constituent Assembly, had undertaken to play the role of single-minded fascists. They attributed the idea of Khalistan to the Sikhs. The strategy was to prevent them asking for fulfilling the promises, for an autonomous Punjabi speaking territorial unit solemnly made to lure them into the Indian Union in 1947. On popular communal demand Indira Gandhi assumed the mantle of converting the Sikh association with India into a death trap for the entire Sikh nation.

8). Her earliest instinct was to encourage foreign scholars like W. H. McLeod to show her how the edifice so coherently put together by the Guru could be dismantled. Hew McLeod did his worst and was successful in producing a crop of indigenous scholars who would follow a white man like rats following the pied piper. To accommodate his flock, phoney well wishers of the community would soon establish chairs in foreign universities. The other function was naturally to popularise his negative formulations, although their hollowness was exposed on unassailable original evidence available in plenty.

9). In pursuit of dismantling the Khalsa edifice, her father before her had propped up pseudo-religious leaders to establish schismatic sects within the Sikh faith. The game had been earlier tried without success by Aurangzeb and Bahadurshah. Jawaharlal Nehru had relied upon the Radhaswamis, Namdharis and Nanaksarias to perform the executioners’ job. Indira Gandhi depended upon the Nirankaris while continuing to support the Radhaswamis and Nanaksarias for the same purpose. Her evil mind dreamed of bringing back the days when the statues of hydra-headed and elephant-headed gods had polluted the pure spirituality of the Guru’s Darbar dedicated to the Formless One.

10). M. K. Gandhi, the true chief architect of India’s vivisection in 1947, also had charted out a course for these sects and cults. He made it his business to discredit the Sikhs. Invisible fascist hands under his patronage started the killing of Muslims in Delhi. Ostensibly this was their attempt to pay back in the same coin to Mahmud Ghazni, Muhammad Ghauri, Aurangzeb, Nadir and Abdali albeit a few centuries after their demise. Gandhi gladly embraced the role of ascribing the killings to the Sikhs. His ‘prayer meetings’ in Delhi were attracting much attention in those heady days and he made full use of the media attention to cast the Sikhs in the role of devils, although they were the victims of the partition brought about by him and were then destitute and homeless. Such situations are usually exploited by cowardly moral wrecks; Gandhi however, adjusted himself to that role like a fish taking to water.

11). In 1911 Tagore in his article had summed up all that the pcm found undesirable about the Sikhs. At about the same time David Petrie, the Assistant Director of the Central Intelligence had noticed the deep rooted antipathy of the pcm to the administration of pahul by the Guru and to the rahit prescribed by him. Gandhi too identified the same problems as the pcm was having with the Sikhs. M. K. Gandhi gave precision to his “gurudev’s” formulations, It was the separate identity that hurt the pcm the most. Based upon this the strategy of the schismatic sects propped up by the Congress governments at the centre, had been chalked out. Central to them was to throw a challenge to the Tenth Nanak’s decree abolishing a human Guru and of eternally bestowing the gurgaddi on the Guru Granth. Gandhi subscribed to the identical view. He frowned upon the separate identity, the Sikh ceremonial sword, the Punjabi language and the Gurmukhi script. All these became the points of difference that the sponsored sects had with the Khalsa.

12). Indira Gandhi had supported the Nirankaris depending upon them to wean away the Sikhs from their faith. The Punjab administration was instructed to play them up. Sant Kartar Singh, head of the seminary at Mehta Chowk realised this early and correctly understood the purpose of the rulers. He perceived Akalis as playing politics with even this serious religious issue. So the Sant braced himself up to oppose both the Nirankaris and their mentors. He organised some forty mammoth marches to oppose the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and her interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs. His successor Sant Jarnail Singh continued to stoutly oppose the nefarious activities. He broadened his concerns further. In 1978, Sant Bhinderanwale supported Bhai Amrik Singh and some Dal Khalsa candidates for elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC). It was an indication that he wanted a change in the religious leadership of the Sikhs. He was able to garner a respectable measure of support. Apart from the Akalis, this sent alarm bells ringing in the central and state governments.

13). Encouragement that the Nirankaris received from the various governments in the Punjab and at the centre convinced them that the time for decisive war had come. They decided to make a beginning at Amritsar where they announced a parallel structure to replace the khalsapanth. Some Sikh volunteers decided to resist the onslaught. The Nirankaris unleashed extreme violence on the peacefully protesting unarmed Sikhs on April 13, 1978, at Amritsar and killed 17 of them excluding two bystanders. This firearm wielding Nirankaris were given police support. No one was arrested on the spot although the Nirankaris remained there for several hours after the massacre. The case was transferred to a court outside the Punjab by the central government. Hard evidence was not presented. False evidence of innocence was cooked up. In the circumstances, the court acquitted the sixty four accused.. No appeal against the acquittal was filed. It soon became obvious to the Sikhs that there was no justice for them under the pcm’s dispensation. Under the perceived ‘Hindu imperialism’ the only way in which justice could be obtained was by extra-judicial execution. This was what the Sikhs did. When the Akali government in the Punjab was dismissed by Indira Gandhi, the Akalis too were obliged to exhibit their sympathy with the Sikhs and the Punjab. They launched a peaceful agitation for redressing of Punjab’s religious and economic grievances.

14). The decision to brutally crush the dharamyudhmorcha launched by the Akalis best suited Indira Gandhi’s design. She targeted amritdhari young Sikhs, the type of whom the Sant was projecting in the leadership role. The first half a dozen Sikhs killed in contrived police encounters were those who like Kulwant Singh Nagoke were reputed to be good Sikhs. So had been the 17 killed by her allies, the Nirankaris on the Baisakhi day of 1978. Wanton violence was quite in keeping with her purpose. On one occasion more than 20 agitating Akalis were mowed down with a machine gun from a helicopter when they were dispersing after stopping traffic on a road from 10 AM to 4:30 PM. Similarly the armed forces fired upon the unarmed persons retiring to their villages after witnessing the arrest of Sant Bhinderanwale on September 20, 1981 and without provocation killed thirteen of them. Later (February 14, 1984) the Hindu Sauraksha Samiti, supported by her minion called for a shut down to match the completely peaceful shut down of the AISSF (of February 8), and killed 25 Sikhs in Karnal alone, where 6 gurdwaras were also burnt down. This is just a small portion of the blood that filled newly incarnated Durga’s bowl. The police and the Hindu crowds killing the Sikhs knew that immunity from the operation of the country’s laws existed for them under her dispensation. The official journal of the Indian army “Baatcheet” of June 1984 instructed those who were to conduct the operations in the Punjab to regard the amritdhari young men as those committed to terrorism.

15). The unlimited fund of intense hatred that is ever available with the permanent cultural majority helped Indira Gandhi in dealing with Bhinderanwale and all those who like him defied the illegal diktats of the authorities and talked of religious freedom, rule of law, true federalism, liberty, justice, inalienable rights, people’s sovereignty and democracy. They were to be projected as patrons of terrorism and separatism. It was done very efficiently by the loyal Press notwithstanding the well known fact that the Sant always kept a copy of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of the Akali Dal under his pillow to place political limits on his enthusiastic supporters. He never had a political party and no independent political programme. Nevertheless the Darbar was attacked to kill him and in the bargain to destroy Sikh institutions. The only rationale sold to the gullible Indian audience was that all violent activity would end with his elimination and the destruction of the Akal Takhat. It soon became apparent to the neutral observer that pcm had been wrongly briefed. Despite her authoritative propagation of the theory, the violence had escalated a thousand fold after the June 1984 army attack.

16). Role of Sant Jarnail Singh during the Akali dharamyudh morcha was limited at best to aiding the Akalis in concluding an honourable peace with the government. At the worst, he was keen for a complete change in the pliable political leadership of the Sikhs. Giani Zail Singh was the self-proclaimed bought slave of Indira Gandhi, and prided himself on being a ‘sweeper at her door’ even after becoming the president of India. He was in favour of preserving the Akali leadership upon which he eventually relied to betray Sikh interests. Amongst them the Congress and the centre could easily find low minded collaborators in the venture launched by his mistress to destroy other nations and minorities. He was shrewd enough to know that they had tasted political power and were aware of the opportunities for self aggrandisement that any betrayal would afford. The loot of gurdwaras had also catered to the same sentiment. Giani tried to gain credibility with the Sikh masses by pretending to be a good Sikh. This would allow him to manipulate the Akalis. Giani looked upon this task as a service to the Congress party and was duly rewarded for his efforts by being made the Home Minister of India after Indira Gandhi’s return to political power in 1980. As the chief minister of the Punjab his important venture had been to ‘lay’ a metalled road connecting all the places that Guru Gobind Singh had travelled to in his last journey through the Punjab. Most of the metalled road already existed. His contribution was to name it Guru Gobind Singh Marg. He succeeded in his undertaking. The Sikh masses swung in his favour and forced the Akalis to support his candidacy. He gained the sympathetic ear of the Akalis and was also able to get their votes in the presidential elections on July 13, 1982.

17). The Hindu Press made much of the assassination of Lala Jagat Narayan to malign the real Sikh leadership. They attributed it to Sant Baba Bhinderanwale. We were then living in times in which, according to Bhinderanwale himself, slaughter of every chicken and of every goat was likewise nailed to his door. It had become most convenient and most popular to blame the Sant. An attempt was made to make him a conspirator in the murder of Jagat Narayan. Significantly, the alleged conspirator was arrested even before actual culprits were apprehended. Jagat Narayan had a three decade old history of virulent Sikh baiting and had created enemies in every nook and corner of the Punjab. The evidence of his denigrating Sikh values and running down Sikh personalities is available in his own writings in the Punjab Kesri group of newspapers owned and edited by him. He also had been the main defence witness in the Baisakhi Murder Case against the Nirankaris. His son Romesh Chandra was following him in his footsteps. In the central government sponsored situation of lawlessness, in which militants, vigilante groups, underground policemen and anti-social elements were operating freely, the resultant violence in the state was being attributed only to the Sikhs. In the then prevailing circumstances, such assassinations surprised no one. It was an expression of extreme irresponsibility to attribute them to the Sant and was interpreted as an attempt at browbeating those sincerely engaged in serving the people. Such tactics have never been rare in India since 1947.

18). This fishing in the cesspool was aimed at fattening the black goat as a prelude to sacrificing it to the Kali Kalkattewali. The Indian establishment and the Press consciously rendered the honourable and pure minded Sant liable to be brutally murdered in the most cowardly act. A strategy was calculated to endear the prime minister to the communal masses who perceived her as making efficient efforts at eliminating Sikh influence from politics. It was the only route through which the 12% Hindus of the state could effectively rule the Punjab. They all cooperated in placing the Sant’s life in the hands of a terribly insecure woman striving to establish a dynasty in a democracy. Her minions and army generals like Vaidya and Brar readily prostituted themselves for the most unholy act ever undertaken by any army since the Afghan army under Ahmed Shah Abdali (1762). Her attempt at becoming the spirit of Hindu revivalism however failed. She lost it out to the more chauvinistic and openly more fascist Sangh Parivar for whom it was easy to inherit her political mantle even while the dynasty remained in power.

19). Terrorising the Sikhs was necessary for achieving the objective. Bhajan Lal, who in an unheard of expression of extreme unscrupulousness had defected to the Indira Congress along with the entire legislative party the people had voted to power against the Congress, came in handy for the purpose. It will be remembered that subsequently, the same Bhajan Lal had been hoisted to power in Haryana by the Governor (nominee of the central government) although his rival Devi Lal had been elected by a vast majority. He did much to convince the Sikhs that they were second class citizens in India, could be bullied at will and prevented from travelling on a national highway to the capital of the country. He was just trying to please a benefactor who, in the interest of establishing a dynasty was required to raise and then erase the fear of a miniscule 2% minority in the minds of the pcm constituting 80% of India’s population.

20). The great deception was perpetrated with the help of the obliging Media that could never be raped because it was ever willing. Indira Gandhi instilled the fear of an individual into the mind of India’s pcm until it was fully numbed and completely petrified beyond sensitivity of any kind. Bhinderanwale was dubbed a terrorist although he was charged with no terrorist crime. He was demonised in accordance with the cultural traditions of the pcm that remind one of Shambhook, Eklavya, Bali and Ravana the king of Sri Lanka. Armed with hatred of a whole community and exercising absolute control over a slavish army, she gave illegal and inhuman orders to kill one person against whom there was no proof of guilt and who was at all times entitled to a legal trial. In the bargain she was prepared to destroy the five centuries old centre of a cultural tradition dedicated to nurturing a common participative universal culture for the new human of the new dawn. The Sant had the right to self-defence under all civilised law. Only low gladiators and executioners would have taken up the hangman’s job she assigned to her generals. They mortgaged their conscience to a tyrant and accepted the supari to kill an unarmed person lodged in a fixed location. They pitted the might of a modern state against a mere forty-five almost unarmed, untrained, and of course absolutely innocent persons.

21). Initial undertaking turned them into the goons of the Chhota Rajan or Pretender Rani gang. When the killers accepted to carry out the field orders to eliminate him at any cost, they turned themselves into a bunch of thugs who adored the Black goddess. The forces they headed, that instant were transformed into her worshippers. They tried everything in their arsenal. It included armed personnel carrier, cluster bombs, poisonous gases, machine guns, helicopter cannons and all else, yet they were held up for more than 72 hours. In those hours they lost more soldiers than they had lost in an international war. The Battle of Chamkaur fortress which was the inspiration of the cornered Sikhs came alive. David acquitted himself gloriously once again against Goliath. The Sant and his companions fought like every free man should fight to preserve his liberty. In a daring bid to guard the “ashes of their fathers — the temples of their gods’, despite being hopelessly outnumbered, they mocked at defeat and despair and gladly embraced death.

22). Like the hordes of Abdali before them, Indira Gandhi’s cohorts looted all that they could. The living quarters of lay priests and journalist adjoining the complex were ransacked and plundered. Pilgrims were raped. “Prisoners of war,” ranging from four to sixteen years of age and including women and Bangladesh citizens staying overnight in the rest houses attached to the shrine, were taken. Peaceful volunteers who had come to offer arrest in the ongoing agitation were murdered. Bodies of several children with hands tied at the back and with a single bullet-hole in the head were brought in for post-mortem. Forces burnt down the Sikh Reference Library, destroyed the Akal Takhat, killed hymn singers (for instance, the blind Bhai Amrik Singh) inside the Darbar, violated and trampled under military boots every inch of the sacred soil hallowed by the blood of martyrs. These martyrs were those who had beaten back the invader Abdali and had rescued thousands of Hindu women and men saving them the usual fate atop the Hindukush where men were slaughtered and the bazaars of Ghani where women slaves sold real cheap. The martyrs also included those who had re-conquered the whole of modern day Pakistan, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir from the Afghan empire and had made it a part of India.

Foreign hand canard

23). In addition, Indira Gandhi wanted to project the Sant as an anti-national person. A vital part of her strategy was to insinuate that he was an agent of foreign powers. A thesis of sorts was meticulously built up. Deliberately left undefined foreign powers, allegedly jealous of the progress that India had made, were supposedly prying around for an opportunity to destroy India. Just to be on the safe side, the initiative was left with Russians who set the ball rolling. Russia’s official news agency, TASS reported that the KGB had deciphered the hand of Pakistan’s ISI and the American CIA behind the disturbances in the Punjab. On the date on which this was alleged (December 30, 1981) nothing much really sinister was happening in the Punjab. The Akali Dal had just about defined the problems that the Punjab and the Sikhs were facing at the hands of the central government. Strategy to redress the grievances was being prepared. Four months later on April 22, 1982, the home minister of India, alleged in the Rajya Sabha that the communal clashes in Amritsar were inspired by foreign powers with a view to causing disintegration of the country. This nebulous concept served her purpose for long.

24). Attempts at popularising the proposition continued to be made. India’s external affairs minister (P. V. Narasimha Rao) vended the imported Russian theory in a big way while speaking in the meeting of the consultative committee on June 27, 1984. He did not identify any particular foreign power either.

25). Then the astute Indira Gandhi took it up herself. She had done her worst at Amritsar and now wanted to milk the maximum amount of sympathy for the dynasty. The paranoid woman projected herself as living dangerously. While speaking in the Rajya Sabha on July 24, 1984, she said, “I am – butt of attack of – some most powerful forces in the world.” Darbara Singh, who was always more loyal than the king, identified the foreign powers for the first time in a responsible forum. He talked of CIA and Zia-ul-Haq as operating through Dr. Jagjit Singh Chauhan to destabilise India. This was too specific. It could have at least caused a diplomatic storm particularly as the allegation was baseless. So Indira Gandhi intervened to contradict him. She said there was no specific information and that what she knew she would not share with the public “in national interest.” This is also the position reflected in the White Paper on Punjab Agitation adopted by the government of India on July10, 1984.

26). The task of laying specific blame appears to have been assigned to Lev Rovnin, the foreign minister of the Russian Federation who picked up the strings while speaking at a function in the Indian Embassy at Moscow. According to the Press Trust of India’s report of August 12, 1984, he claimed that it was “irrefutably proved” that the CIA and the “aggressive imperialist circles of Washington” were behind the Sikh militancy.

27). Benazir Bhutto and Zia-ul-Haq were the two persons whose governments are supposed to have helped the militants in the Punjab. Fortunately we have the authoritative versions of both of them. Bhandara was a lone Parsi Member of Pakistan’s Parliament. He was advisor to Zia on minority affairs from 1982 to 1985. He was privy to Zia plan on the ‘Sikh separatists.’ Talking to The Tribune on May 8, 2003, after crossing over to India at Wagha he said “General Zia was opposed to the Sikh movement because the map of Khalistan included territories of Pakistan as well. He had stated that it was true that the general would give all moral and other support to Sikh hardliners but it was his standing order to all concerned to keep them under strict surveillance. Hence they were kept under virtual house arrest for a long time. The general had also issued directions that they should not be allowed to wage their movement from the soil of Pakistan. This revelation came as shock to radical Sikhs. Bhandara had admitted that he on and off met the hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane in Kot Lakhpat and other jails as a part of his official assignment.” (The Tribune, July 20, 2008, 4)

28). Pakistan under the other dispensation also vociferously denied that it had helped the Sikhs. On the contrary it affirmed that it had helped India. In an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Benazir Bhutto said that she had assisted the Indian government. ‘India was facing a very difficult situation in Punjab, and had Pakistan not extended cooperation, New Delhi’s position would have been different.’ The (former) prime minister said, “when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister, India was facing a big problem — it was on the verge of separation. Had Pakistan not helped them (India), God knows where they would have been now. But we helped them because it is our principle not to interfere in others’ affairs.” (The Tribune, February 15, 1994, p.1)

29). She had again said the same in another interview with the BBC before coming to Pakistan to contest the last elections of her life. Her statement was disputed by a retired Indian civil servant. She was clarifying her position a day before her assassination and according to some thinkers (for instance a free intellectual brigadier Usman Khalid), it became the cause of her assassination. She elaborated on the kind of help she had rendered. She said that in a one-to-one meeting with Rajiv Gandhi, “where there was not even a fly on the wall,” she had supplied the whereabouts of all the Sikh militants to India. It will be remembered that all the leaders of the major militant outfits were eliminated suddenly within few days. By this confession she had compromised her country’s honour and security. It is a small wonder that she was killed within 24 hours of this public disclosure.

30). The next scion of the dynasty and sole owner of the “inherited democracy” (Washington Times of June 9, 1987, as quoted by the UNI report circulated to the Indian Press, the next day) continued to rave against the Sant and the Sikhs. But he was a crude and boorish man known more for his clownish approach to politics. The BBC in its Urdu service of June 9, 1987, saw him as “dada” and a “school bully” in the region. Sri Lanka’s president Jayewardene at one time implored him to abjure violence and to give up “bullying” with a view to stoking war, while affirming that his country would never fight its “great neighbour.” (The Indian Express, June 10, 1987, 1.) The same paper (in a front page article by the editor) called him a “liar” and hinted that it was his permanent “trait” while referring to his oft repeated “nonsense about destabilisation.” It further observed that under Rajiv even a solemn promise of the Parliament meant nothing. Rajiv humiliated the chief minister of Assam (The Indian Express, June 8, and June 9, 1987). The paper editorially observed that Rajiv was inclined to be perfidious “opposition and others have learnt, in one-to-one meeting they open themselves to the risk of being misrepresented –.” N.T. Rama Rao the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, knew him to be ‘uncultured and ignorant’ to meet whom was to “waste time and money.” (The Tribune, June 17, 1987, 9). He was at his lowest ebb when he called the elderly lawyer Jethmalani, a “dog.” Doggedly determined Jethmalani returned the compliment by insinuating that the prime minister was a ‘thief’ and a ‘liar.’

31). In a highly sarcastic article in The Indian Express of June 13, 1987, one of our most respected columnists, S. Mulgaokar poured downright contempt on Rajiv Gandhi calling him a “liar,” a “coward,” a “promise breaker” and an “uncivilised person.” Sanjeeva Reddy, the former President of India, according to Surya Prakash, found him “in a state of confused mind.” (See, “Politics of abuse,” The Indian Express, June 18, 1987, 6) Rajiv Gandhi ‘condemned those as anti-national traitors’ who had misgivings about his assurances.’ Referring to it the author says, “Mr. Gandhi’s responses sounded harsh and uncharitable then. They appear hollow now.”

32). The Sikhs and the Sant could expect no better from the person for whom the entire opposition was subversive, anti-national and inspired by foreign enemies because it did not find the Anandpur Sahib Resolution a subversive document. V. P. Singh who came as a prime minister after him, was ‘Raja Jaichand’ (who betrayed India in the tenth century and whose name is byword for treachery) to him. He invented the possibilities of Zail Singh dismissing him and of Pakistan attacking India in January 1987. Farooq Abdullah’s government was dismissed on charges of communalism and support to anti-national forces, soon Rajiv’s Congress was ruling in coalition with Farooq. In the last analysis, one purpose of inventing the ‘foreign hand’ theory was to wean away the leftist parties from the Akali agitation. This is why the Russian services were used.

33). For these reasons it may not be fruitful to analyse Rajiv’s pronouncements about the Sant and the Sikhs or the canard of the ‘foreign hand’ theory. On resuming the discussion, the well researched observation of the Surya magazine becomes relevant. It says that India imported the arms with the help of the ISI of Pakistan and it sent them into the Darbar complex to implicate the Sikhs. The same is also true of the arms that were dropped over Purulia at the time when P. V. Narasimha Rao was the prime minister. The truth that emerges from the scrutiny is that Indira Gandhi, her son, her cohorts and minions were not only supporting a blatant lie but were also themselves conspiring with foreign powers to malign and harm their own countrymen. They gave no explanation for their shameful behaviour but one was invented for them by another foreigner attached to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Mark Tully in his Amritsar, (Rupa and Co. 1985, p. 208), is of the opinion that Pakistan at that time was helping the United States in combating Soviet presence in Afghanistan. The fear of jeopardising relations with the United States prevented India from naming Pakistan. This is clearly an inadequate ground as Indira Gandhi never exhibited a pro-American sentiment and had no love lost for Ronald Regan. India under her remained a satellite of the Soviet Union. This tribe of liars and calumniators has not ended with the immediate minions of Indira Gandhi but has had an extension in lease of life through those (likes of Chandan Mitra) who thrive on yellow journalism. They have no hesitation in maligning their most honourable contemporary who has been voted the greatest person of the 20th century with all the Sikhs, the world over participating.

Bhinderanwale’s contribution

34). Bhinderanwale exposed the worst in the culture of India’s pcm. Its innate disposition which is brutal, fascist and bloody was shown to have been built around deep-rooted intolerance. Being violence prone at the slightest provocation the pcm had been ever willing to destroy other nation’s holiest shrines on any or no pretext. It supports a culture that has abiding hatred of ‘the other’ as its driving force and hallmark. This much had been known for centuries. The Bhinderanwale episode served to highlight it. Unbridled violence against a political opponent or a dissenter has been the normal course when the opponent is weak. The same army however, recently demonstrated reluctance to tackle the Maoists equipped by China. The political leadership is keen not to be left behind in pleasing the rebels. Shibu Sorain the chief minister of Jharkhand publicly embraced the Naxalites as “brothers and sisters.” See-saw game between the two sentiments is currently going on. Fear triumphs over hatred for a while then hatred takes over again. Raw fear is not enough to contain age old hatred and the bloodstained, brutally maimed bodies of killed Naxalites continue to defile the pages of publications. It appears that, the juggernaut will stop rolling only when the ‘might is right’ rule (lashtikaniaye of Chanakya) is fully established or when “brothers and sisters” take over the reins.

35). The crafty Indira Gandhi thought she could hide her motives by shedding a few crocodile tears, pretended to rebuild the Takhat on the heavily veiled pretext of making amends. Perhaps she thought her ‘victory’ was not complete until she had forced the Takhat built by her down the throats of the Sikhs. Had she cared for Sikh traditions, she would have known that the building erected by the National Building Corporation, in the garb of Nihangs owing allegiance to her home minister Buta Singh, was most unlikely to survive for long. It had come to symbolise her arrogance. It was legitimately pulled down by the Sikhs at the first opportunity. The 26 kilograms of polluted gold reportedly put on the purest of domes, by ruthless, remorseless invader of the shrine, was contemptuously thrown where it belonged – into the dust (bin of history). A martyr’s spirit had triumphed over the diktat of a tyrant.

36). An expression of the same defiant spirit was the killing of the collaborating, self-styled Sant. Longowal was shot dead for betraying the voluntary forces that were still locked in a grim struggle. Abandoning all shame and propriety, giving in to cowardice and in extra-ordinary exhibition of poverty of understanding, he had blackened his face in history by signing the document of abject surrender otherwise known as the Longowal-Rajiv Accord of 1986.

37). Again and again India miserably failed to correctly assess the situation. It had to learn again that the endurance, the emotional strength and the innate fighting capability of its opponents surpassed all human limits. The battle that the Sant gave will be remembered for thousands of years. On re-assessing, the red-faced journalists then called it the ‘Third Sikh War.’ Though the assessment is marred by the disproportionate numbers in the field of battle, the idea is well mooted. After 1984 they had their stooges draw clumsy maps of Khalistan and make tall claims. These are then attributed to the Sant who never subscribed to the idea and always supported the Anandpur Sahib Resolution adopted by the Akali Dal. As a non-member he supported the political party struggling for legitimate democratic rights. He never subscribed to any formal political set up. The deep desire of enthusiastic journalists promoting jingoism is to conjure up all the ghosts that disturb their sleep, attribute them posthumously to the Sant and pretend that they have all been taken care of with his assassination. If one reads their minds well then a disturbing image of the country emerges. A country that has not seen even a century of independent existence, has yet gathered the arrogance of an empire of a millennium, notwithstanding two military defeats. The one in 1962 was the greatest disaster to have happened to an army ever since mankind started walking on two feet. The other was no less. It in addition it immortalised the Sant who died undefeated and a proud sovereign man, a worthy Sikh of the Guru. There is need to pay heed to Bhagat Kabir who says, “do not be condescending, do not mock a (temporarily) disadvantaged people. The boat is still on the high seas. Who knows what may still happen?”

38). To make their ‘triumph’ appear complete the criminal state, the deceiving Media and central governments agencies created false inheritors of Sant Baba Jarnail Singh Khalsa’s mantle. Some of them have been dumped into oblivion, others have been killed in an act of unparalleled perfidy, some others still remain masquerading abroad and in India as pushers of mere radical slogans. It is a burlesque that we have witnessed and are witnessing even today. It is much like the modern day ramlila complete with an actor burning down Ravana’s gigantic paper image with great fanfare and in the presence of enthusiastically cheering crowds in every city and town of the country. The same crowd invariably has previously contributed to erecting the image. A nation of corrupt pigmies, engrossed in looting its own people is not best qualified to map the powerful currents of history. Beant Singh, the murderer of thousands of innocent persons including women and toddlers, was one day projecting himself as an equal of Ram and Nanak. Within three weeks of that hilarious proclamation, his body was literally in a thousand pieces. Walls and the ground around had to be scrapped to recover hundreds of them. Like all tyrants, tyrannous nations too have a lifespan. Retribution pulls them down in an imperceptible operation (Black Ignominy!) which none can see coming but which is advancing all the time. The truism of history is: ‘a tyrant dies and his reign ends. A martyr dies and his reign begins.’

39). Power-drunk slaves like Gill organised sessions at Amritsar (as the depraved Nirankaris had done in 1978) to signify that all human decencies, all moral values and spiritual valour that the city stands for and Sant Bhinderanwale had upheld, had been trampled under foot. They pretended that they had scored a great victory over an unarmed population supporting a potent idea. It was beyond their comprehension that womanisers, looters of defenceless people’s property, cruel tormentors of innocent people in custody, hired corrupt pimps of a rotting culture propped up by the state power never determine the course of history. Those who believed that the temporary violent repression was a permanent visitation saw their thoughts evaporate in 1999. In that year Sant Jarnail Singh Bhinderanwale was voted the twentieth century’s greatest person by the Sikhs all over the world. These included important Sikh institutions including the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee the honourable citizens like the most celebrated poet – the author of several immortal works, educationists, lawyers, generals, saints, scholars, Media personalities and human rights activists. His images adorn almost every Sikh household all over the world and his legacy lives on. When another one of his kind will arise to move the masses to holier paths of spiritual self-assertion, it cannot be said definitely but only a fool or a cringing slave (in or out of uniform) will rule out that possibility.

40). The whole world knows of cultures that were defeated once and did not let out even a loud groan for seven to nine centuries at a stretch. At least three times before in history, and once in our lifetime, tyrants have pronounced the Sikh people dead. Despite predictions of doom by inebriated collaborators, the Sikhs have always sprung back to life. One who has a lifetime ahead of him may securely place a wager on that happening.

41). The other army operation that followed the one in June 1984, was for the purpose of humiliating and terrorising the Sikhs in the name of wiping out remnants of militancy. Its undeclared aim was to show who the masters were in India. In response to the orgy of organised violence let lose by the armed forces, despite the depraved brutality of Gills and Ribeiros, their underground police, the regular police and their allies, the Sikh young men met the might of the modern state without an iota of fear in their eyes or trace of hesitation on their brow.

42). The concept of Khalistan that he had never supported while alive, instantly became a loud slogan to venerate his memory. India stood in the immediate danger of dismemberment. If history has a lesson it is this, that the sceptre of such highly significant moments is destined to reappear again and again until the goal is achieved or until the wronged spirit is appeased by paying a befitting tribute. Super-human struggles to preserve the sovereignty of the worthiest people under the sun do not just whither away.

43). What is significant in the post 1984 period is not that phoney protagonists of Khalistan were propped up and then defeated according to the script, but that the Sikh determination to live honourably came through the dark clouds of severe repression. In any civilised country rogue generals and politicians would have faced trial on charges of genocide. Several such trials have been recently witnessed. Even today Hosne Mubarak is answering for ordering the killing of his own people. Slovodan Milosevic found the easier way out. More than one hundred of those who held high offices have been convicted of war crimes. Since that was not possible in the circumstances of this unfortunate land, the senior most general was shot like a rat that he was. So also was the person who gave the supari, since this was the only way to bring her to justice.

44). It is the experience of Muslims before 1947 and that of the Sikhs after that year that the most poisonous of all is not a viper in the grass but a journalist wedded to serving the interest of the pcm. When the pendulum starts swinging in favour of the Sant and all he stood for, it will receive a great impetus from the activity of modern day shallow journalists and their vituperative writings designed to spew venom all around. It was consistent Sikh hating and Sikh baiting of four decades that had given rise to the Sant Bhineranwale phenomena. It persists and will surely cause another such to rise from the dusty village roads and from amongst the worthy sons of the Punjab who still hold honour, truth, dignity and justice as dearer than life itself. This time the one to come will not be as innocent as the Sant was. His struggle will be far more effective and far more successful. Those who created Pakistan are still around with the same pen and ink. If anything, their tribe is increasing. This time they have turned their attention to Khalistan. All augurs well; the future appears to be bright.

45). Every Sikh remembers the bloody dawn when they abandoned their ancestral lands losing their relatives to communal frenzy and trekked to the land they then considered their own. The First Patiala recalls the day they pushed back the Razakars to once again reclaim Srinagar and the rest of Kashmir for India. Pakistani generals in their memoirs rue the memorable night when they had hoped to have ridden to Delhi for breakfast. But their mounts, the Patton tanks, were reduced to rabble and consigned to the graveyard of Asal Uttar in Khemkaran by the vigilant Sikhs exhibiting extreme bravery. Pictures of general Niazi surrendering along with ninety thousand soldiers to general Jagjit Singh Aurora are still printable although stained by the blood of Shabeg Singh the other general who made that picture possible. Every Sikh farmer knows the contempt with which he snatched the begging bowl from the hands of Bharat and threw it away for good as a prelude to assuming responsibility for feeding its teeming millions who have by now grown to over a billion. One wonders whether any of these performances will be repeated, should a similar situation arise again?

[Note: Indian media and Indian journalists constantly try to further the state's perspective on various issues, especially on issues related to the struggle of "struggling nations" residing in this peninsula, called India or Bharat. Above writing by Sirdar Gurtej Singh is a strong reply to Chandan Mitra's writing "The Suicidal Missionary" published by IndiaToday.

- Sikh Siyasat]

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It was in the aftermath of British conquest that the myth of the Indian nation was engendered. In reality, this newly established country was nothing more than a conglomerate of sovereign nations and territories joined together for the sake of expedience. The people of this newly formed state awoke to a new reality on January 26, 1950 when India’s Constituent Assembly finalized and passed it’s constitution – wholeheartedly imbibing a legacy of colonialism. With this, India maintained a significant portion of British Indian legislation while at the same time codified the imperialistic hegemony of the Brahmin over the oppressed masses of India. Those who celebrate this day, in essence celebrate the slavery of India’s oppressed masses. It concentrated power in the hands of a few bourgeois, Brahmin elite who would ruthlessly wield that power to stoke the fires of communalism¹, flirt with fascism, and – when necessary – massacre their own people to serve their own political interests.

The constitution maintained colonial policy which emphasized centralization to simplify the administration of their subjects by the British. These are the same policies which allowed Indira Gandhi to rule the country by decree during the Emergency period, allowed the central government to violate it’s own constitution to divert Punjab’s water resources to neighboring states and – when it suited them – empowered the central government to override Punjab’s popularly elected governments and impose direct President’s Rule.

Despite the resolution passed by the Congress party that “no future constitution would be acceptable to the Congress that did not give full satisfaction to the Sikhs,”² no heed was paid to the protest of the Sikh representatives who refused to sign the document and staged a walk out of the Constituent Assembly. With Article 25 legally assimilating the Sikh Nation, along with Buddhists and Jains, into the ‘broader Hindu fold,’ all doubt was shattered with regards to India’s dubious claims to secularism. It wasn’t long after that the Anand Marriage Act of 1909, recognizing the separate Sikh marriage ceremony, was abolished and replaced with the Hindu Marriage Act once again confirming the fears that minorities in India would be forcibly assimilated into a unitary Hindu Indian identity.

It was this Hindu chauvinist doctrine that would become the heart of the modern Indian state and would push the Sikhs of Punjab to the edge. After the shameless attempts to deconstruct a distinct Sikh identity; after violating riparian laws by diverting Punjab’s water resources to other states thus crippling Punjab’s agriculture-based economy; and after an all-out offensive attack on the Sikh Nation directly in 1984 and years of brutal genocide in its aftermath – the government gave the Sikh Nation no other choice but to establish an autonomous homeland where the basic rights of the people would be honored and protected.

Recognizing this reality, the Sikh’s resurrected a traditional form of collective decision-making – a Sarbat Khalsa was summoned on January 26, 1986. This monumental gathering regrouped the Sikhs as a nation to weigh recent political developments and to chart their own political future – separate from India’s. As a result, three major decisions were taken at this gathering:

1. To tear down the reconstructed Akal Takhat which was built under the aegis of the government and to rebuild it according to Sikh traditions.
2. To disband the dysfunctional SGPC which subordinated the Akal Takhat and Sikh institutions to the Indian state and replace it with independent, authentic Panthic leadership.
3. To re affirm the Sikh Nation’s commitment to struggle for sovereignty and genuine freedom.

This event was just one example of the overwhelming desire of the Sikhs to secure freedom from India. Over the next few years, Punjab utilized democratic methods to express it’s will and was met with brute force from the Centre. After overriding popularly elected governments and the on-and-off imposition of President’s Rule and Military Rule, Sikh leaders declared an electoral boycott which was overwhelmingly heeded by the people. Less than 20% of the electorate went to the polls in 1992 making the voice of Punjab resoundingly clear – the so-called democratic process of India is broken and is not sufficient to redress the grievances of minorities and the exploited.

Upon his ascension to power because of the boycott of the polls in 1992, Congress Chief Minister Beant Singh and his newly appointed Director General of police, KP Gill sought to destroy Sikh calls for secession. In “Reduced to Ashes,” authors Ram Narayan Kumar and Amrik Singh elaborate how the Beant-Gill tag team decimated the Sikh liberation movement through a simultaneous three pronged approach: silencing human rights groups through killing or imprisoning human rights group leaders; hunting and killing militants by establishing a bounty system; and thirdly by “cleansing the countryside of militant sympathizers” (page 53). Describing how thousands of Punjabis were killed and quietly dumped in canals, the report quotes a formal complaint made by Rajasthan’s government that “the canals were carrying large number of dead bodies into the state… many bodies, their hands and feet tied together, were being fished out when water-in-flow in canals was stopped for repair works (page 53).”

After a generation of Sikh youth was wiped out, after suffering unrelenting state terror and being victimized by the government’s ‘Black Cat’ counter-insurgents, the voice of the people eventually became quiet. The movement and support for Khalistan did not die or end, it has only been suppressed by a fascist government.

This paradox of January 26 absolutely remains relevant today as Punjabi’s go to the polls on the 30th. Not only do they have to deal with the history and reality of a governmental and constitutional set up that has denied them every right and repressed their every protest, but they now look to yet another electoral farce which ignores every issue important to their existence. With no faith in the existing ‘democratic’ system, the people of Punjab are looking for a meaningful way to express their political will and to genuinely take control of their political destiny thereby ending their exploitation at the hands of both the Indian state and the Imperial powers that exploit it’s people.

The Sikh Nation and the people of Punjab have the undeniable right to sovereignty and true liberation, and every attempt of the Indian state and it’s Imperial masters to inhibit the manifestation of this right will only serve to further strengthen our resolve on the path to freedom.

Notes:

1 ethnicity-based sectarianism promoting communal violence.
2 Minutes of the All India Congress Committee, Calcutta, 1946.

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Originally published by: Canadian Sikh Coalition 

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Ludhiana, Punjab (January 26, 2012): The Indian government during 2011 failed to hold rights violators accountable or to carry out effective policies to protect vulnerable communities, Human Rights Watch said on 23rd January, 2012 in its World Report 2012:India.

The government took no action to repeal the widely discredited Armed Forces Special Powers Act, disregarding the recommendations of political leaders and advisers, Human Rights Watch said. The government also ignored the urgent need for police reform despite widespread complaints of torture and unlawful killings as well as deplorable working conditions for police personnel.

“The Indian government took few steps to prosecute abusive soldiers, undertake needed police reforms, or bring an end to torture,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Internationally, India missed opportunities to be a leader at the United Nations Security Council and Human Rights Council in protecting the rights of vulnerable people abroad.”

In its World Report 2012, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. Given the violent forces resisting the “Arab Spring,” the international community has an important role to play in assisting the birth of rights-respecting democracies in the region, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

In India, violence in Jammu and Kashmir state dropped significantly during 2011. The state human rights commission’s investigation of 38 sites in north Kashmir and the discovery of 2,730 unmarked graves was a good first step for providing justice to the victims, Human Rights Watch said. While the government maintains that most of the bodies are those of unidentified Pakistani militants, many Kashmiris believe that victims of fake “encounter killings” or enforced disappearances may also have been buried in those graves. Although the government has promised a thorough inquiry, a credible investigation is impossible without the cooperation of the army and federal paramilitary forces, which hide behind the immunity provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and other laws.

The government belatedly addressed the epidemic of killings on the Indo-Bangladesh border by the Border Security Force (BSF). Although the government ordered restraint and provided rubber bullets to reduce casualties, there were continued reports of torture leading to deaths and other abuses by BSF soldiers. No BSF soldiers have been prosecuted for the unlawful killings of over 900 Indians and Bangladeshis over the past decade.

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call for ‘zero tolerance’ of abuses by the armed forces has been undercut by the near zero progress in holding the abusers responsible,” Adams said. “The government should no longer allow the army to hide behind claims about troop morale or operational needs as an excuse for impunity.”

Residents of areas facing a Maoist insurgency, which in 2011 was active in nearly 80 districts across 11 Indian states, complained of being squeezed between state security forces and Maoist rebels. Security agencies carried out numerous arbitrary arrests and were accused of many instances of torture. The Maoists frequently demanded shelter and information from villagers, who were then punished by security forces for collaborating with the rebels.

Activists working in these areas are at risk from both the Maoists and government forces. Maoists have tortured and killed activists and others they suspected of being government informers, and police in several instances have charged activists with conspiracy and sedition for supporting the Maoist ideology. The Maoists recruit children into their forces and attack schools, often putting students at risk. The government has not fully carried out court directives to end deployment of security forces in schools in areas threatened by the Maoists.

“While the government agrees that the Maoist movement is rooted in failed government policies and speaks of winning hearts and minds, it allows the security forces to commit abuses with impunity,” Adams said. “At the same time, the Maoists claim to speak for the marginalized yet punish anyone who might disagree with their violent methods.”

The government adopted long overdue measures to compensate rape victims and revised its medico-legal protocols to exclude the humiliating “finger” test to investigate rape cases, Human Rights Watch said. Yet the government did little to address the widespread problems of “honor killings,” dowry deaths, and sexual violence. Afurther decline in India’s sex ratio because of sex selective abortion and other abuses against girls and womenpoints to the economic and social disparities that lead families to prefer sons over daughters, and the government’s need to expand educational and economic opportunities for women. The failure to extend maternal health care programs to all mothers below age 19 or with more than two live births also reflected poorly on the government’s commitment to protect women.

The Medical Council of India took an important step in 2011 by recognizing palliative care as a medical specialty. But more than half of government-supported regional cancer centers still do not offer palliative care or pain management, even though more than 70 percent of their patients need it. The result has been severe, unnecessary suffering for tens of thousands of patients.Internationally, although India served on both the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, it let opportunities pass to support independent, international investigations into conflict-related abuses in Sri Lanka and Burma. Instead of using these memberships to show leadership to protect human rights abroad, India remained silent on even the gravest abuses. While expressing concern about the increased violence in Syria, for example, New Delhi failed to support policies that would ease the suffering of the Syrian people.

“India is now watched closely for signs of responsible global leadership,” Adams said. “Its silence on human rights violations by abusive regimes because of its reluctance to interfere in the so-called ‘internal affairs’ of other countries sits uncomfortably alongside its international human rights commitments and its self image as a rights-respecting nation.”

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Below is the full text of the memo:

Respected Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India

Sardar Sahib jio,

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa. Waheguru ji ki Fateh||

We congratulate “you” and “your people” on “your country’s” Republic Day (26th January). Two years from now, you will go down in history as the Prime Minister of India who has had two tenures in a row, a Prime Minister of impeccable honesty and personal integrity and in some eyes a Prime Minister who was tied down by personal loyalty to Congress president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and the politics of a lame-duck coalition government.

You are a Prime Minister who has a Sikh face, who visits Darbar Sahib, Amritsar on New Year day to seek Waheguru’s blessings, and who became Prime Minister notwithstanding the fact that the Sikhs in India and the Diaspora, even in their wildest dreams would not have thought of a Sikh as a Prime Minister. However, their “celebration” of a Sikh Prime Minister began and ended there.

While you unfurl the Indian tricolour on the ramparts of the Red Fort, we cannot but recall that the Sikh nation, under the leadership of Dal Khalsa chieftain Baba Baghel Singh had unfurled the Sikh National Flag from the same spot in 1783. We cherish that legacy.

Today, India as a land of injustice, a land which for the last 65 years has left no stone unturned to let the Sikhs know that they are only a small tiny minority and nothing more.

Chapter after chapter can be written about the alienating role of the Indian state. Constitutionally, Sikhism is not even a separate religion; leave alone the recognition of Sikhs as a nation. Legally, we have to marry, adopt and own property as members of Hindu religion under ‘Hindu Marriage Act’; Sikhs do not have their own personal laws.
Since 1966, you and your party could not give Punjab its capital or a High Court. The land rights of the people of Punjab have been left unresolved.

For decades, in violation of the riparian principle there is a continuous loot of our water wealth. The river waters dispute is still unresolved and now the State wants to either abrogate water rights to the Union of India or give it to multi-national companies. In the last many years, we have been burnt alive on the streets of this country without recourse to justice. Our human rights have been violated with impunity.

Religiously, our Gurdwaras are administered under the provisions of an Act, which is deliberately allowed to have flaws, so that the state can play with it as it deems fit –do you know that the elections to the SGPC were concluded in September 2011 and the house has not yet been constituted?

As Punjab goes to the polls on Jan 30, the political landscape of Punjab is devoid of issues and concerns. All parties in a fray are resorting to populism of the worst kind, mocking the population of the state. A proud Punjabi people, believing in “Kirat” –honestly doing one’s duty to earn a living, have been reduced to holding the begging bowl for freebies and largesse from a state whose fiscal policies are teetering on creating and fostering systems of inequitable distribution of wealth, loot of natural resources and more expenditure on defence than health and education.

Sikhs, who adore you or even oppose you, would have thought that you will do enough to stop the denigration of the Sikh image. On the contrary, we are still a butt of ‘Irish jokes’ and on the international front too your government has failed to resolve the problems related to Sikh identity.

India today is an opportunistic state, whose secularism has been sacrificed many a time at the altar of the needs of the political parties and their leaders. Our sensitivity and sensibilities are under attack all the time. We see no real future for our people.

We reinforce and reiterate that the Sikhs are a sovereign people. We are wedded to the ideal, “A Sikh is either a sovereign or a rebel.” Dal Khalsa will continue its work for fulfilment of the rightful political aspirations of the Sikh people through the right to self-determination.
With best wishes

Kanwar Pal Singh
Secretary, Political Affairs
Dal Khalsa
Amritsar.

Ph: 09814907055

Dated: 26 Jan 2012

• The Paradox of January 26 – by Prabhjot Singh
• Sehajdhari Issue – (1) HC issued notice to Centre, Punjab, SGPC and Gurudwara EC; next hearing on 8 Feb. (2) Why situation is so confusing?
• Bhai Gajinder Singh slams the brand of Hindutva nationalism being exhibited at Ramlila ground
• Independence Day of Pakistan & India, because of Sikhs
• Dal Khalsa extends felicitation to Pakistan; says Sikhs were not lucky to get their own Homeland in 1947

On January 16, 1995 Jaswant Singh Khalra and Jaspal Singh Dhillon revealed thousands of secret cremation records of “unidentified” bodies. It quickly became clear that Indian security forces were killing people without regard for rule of law or basic legal processes. On September 6th, 1995, Jaswant Singh Khalra was abducted by Punjab police – soon after he too was killed.

From 1984 to 1995 Indian security forces and pro-independence militias fought a brutal war in Punjab that left tens of thousands dead. Tens of thousands were disappeared and tortured. Tragically, the perpetrators of these gross human rights violations continue to walk free and some were even rewarded for their actions.

Despite denials by the Indian government of widespread state-sponsored killings and disappearances in Punjab, human rights workers proved otherwise. Since it’s been over 20 years since most of the human rights violations occurred, it’s easy for us to forget.

So, why even bother with Punjab? Forcing the Indian government to redress and acknowledge their sordid human rights record will have positive ramifications for Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, & North East – other regions awash with large scale human rights violations.

For the victims and their families, seeking justice is paramount. That’s why it’s so amazing to see organizations like Ensaaf, a US based non-profit, leading the charge. By documenting victim stories, providing litigation support and organizing survivors, Ensaaf challenges the Indian government’s denial and downplaying of Punjab’s decade of darkness.

Thanks to Ensaaf, the Indian Supreme Court upheld life imprisonment for five police officers convicted of the abduction and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra.

India has a long way to go to repent for the decade of human rights violations in Punjab and I’m always impressed to see organizations such as Ensaaf ensuring that justice will be done.

* Govind Acharya is a member of the South Asia Co-Group for Amnesty International USA.

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Sorce url: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/iar/lets-not-forget-the-injustice-in-punjab/

• SCI’s decision would impose blind impunity zone in Punjab: SSF
• Two decades of impunity: SCI set aside CBI probe against police officers accused of practising enforced disappearances
• Don’t patronize Alam-Virk-Saini, all are “killers of Sikhs”, Dal Khalsa to Badal and Amrinder
• Bhullar’s plea scheduled for hearing in Indian Supreme Court on 19 October
• Amnesty International Issues urgent appeal, favors clemency for 3 Tamil convicts

SGPC:

SGPC is a statuary body formed under The Sikh Gurudwara Act of 1925 and is elected by polls conducted by Gurudwara Election Commission under the directions of Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI. Members of SGPC are elected by Sikh voters of three states and a union territory of India; namely, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh and Chandigarh. SGPC’s main task is to manage the affairs of all major historic Sikh Gurudwaras situated in these four territories.

Basis of Litigation:

Last month on December 20, 2011 the P&H High Court had quashed the GOI’s notification debarring Sehajdharis, from voting in the Sikh body’s polls. Now a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is filed by he petitioner, Sehajdhari Sikh Federation, on this basis of December 20 decision of HC. The petitioner appealed that till the fresh elections are held, newly elected members of SGPC, which is the apex religious body of the Sikhs, be restrained from acting.

Law, Notification and decision of P&H HC:

It was submitted by the petitioner that the election of SGPC held on September 18, 2011 was made conditional and outcome of the writ petitions challenging notification issued by the GOI on October 8, 2003 disfranchising Sehajdharis by the full bench of the High Court as well as by the Supreme Court in the Special Leave Petition. It was contended by the counsel of the petitioners that with the quashing of the notification by a full bench of the court, the election to SGPC was non-est and continuation of the SGPC was not in accordance with law. A bunch of three petitions were filed in the High Court. In one of the writ petition Sehajdhari Sikh Federation had challenged the notification dated October 8, 2003 issued by the union of India whereby in section 49 and 92 of the Sikh Gururdwaras Act 1925 the word “Sehajdari” was omitted. In another writ petition, the constitutional validity of section 44 of the 1925 Act was challenged being ultra vires of the Constitution. The third petition had questioned the validity of notification being in contradiction to the definition of “Sikh” as contained under the provisions of section 2(9) and 2(10-A) of the 1925 Act.

Sehajdhari Controversy; Why situation is so confusing?:

The Sehajdhari issue has created a controversy in political, social and religious circles of Sikhs. Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), also known as Badal Dal, is blaming Congress Party, and it’s Punjab President Captain Amrinder Singh, for politically using the issue to harm Badal Dal’s political interests.

Other Sikh organizations and political parties, including Akali Dal Panch Pardhani and Dal Khalsa, have accused Badal Dal, SGPC regime led by Badal Dal and Congress Party for allowing the controversy to prevail and thereby allowing Indian courts to pronounce decisions in religious matters of Sikhs.

Some religious bodies, including Sant Samaj and Damdami Taksal (Mehta/Dhumma faction) that have allied with Badal Dal, had also expressed their annoyance over the decision of High Court on Sehajdhari issue.

But the debate centred on this issue does not suggest any way out. The main reason behind this static and confused position could be the complex nature of issue, which on the one hand relates to the internal dynamics of the Sikh society (the definition of Sehajdhari and their role) and on the other hand it is related to relations of Sikhs with the Indian State (The Sikh Gurudwara Act, 1925; the role of Indian Parliament in Sikh religious affairs regarding amendment etc. of the 1925 Act and role of Indian courts being interpreting authority in relation to the said Act.).

• Announcement of religious award for Badal invites strong criticism
• Panth up in arms against proposed changes in the calendar
• NO change in poll schedule for SGPC, Clarifies Center; Badal want clarification on “Conspirary”
• SGPC Elections: Elect Panthic Candidate for better management
• Sikh bodies serve 10 day ultimatum to SGPC on the issue of memorial

The Court has set aside October 8, 2003 notification issued by the the Central Government of India, disbanding “sehajdharis” from voting in SGPC elections.  SGPC is a statutory body elected for managing affairs of major historic Sikh Gurudaras in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal.

“Court has set aside the notification on technical grounds, that the Central Government of India had failed to follow the due procedure besides issuing the notification” Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, who was present in Punjab and Haryana High Court, informed Sikh Siyasat Network over phone.

The Central government was required to approve the notification in Parliament, which was never done, therefore the Court today declared that this notification has binding force.

Legal experts say that this decision has automatically restored the voting rights of “Sehajdharis” without deciding this matter on merits, but it is doubtful that the decision itself would effect the newly held elections of the SGPC.

The case pertained to a petition filed by “Sehajdhari Sikh Federation” and two others challenging the October 8, 2003 Central notification which deprived Sehajdhari Sikhs of their voting rights in SGPC polls. The petitioners had mainly challenged the Union government notification “whereby Sahjdhari Sikhs are not being considered as Sikhs in view of the impugned amended Section 49 and Section 92 of the Gurdwara Act”.

The petitioners had submitted that the original Act declared Sahjdhari Sikhs as qualified electors for SGPC elections and the apex court had in numerous judgements held that the state cannot regulate the definition of religion.

It had also been argued by the petitioners that state authorities cannot fetter the definition of Sikhs in general, and Sehajdhari Sikhs in particular, when religion is not within the bounds of any kind of legislation.

Earlier, on October 19, a full bench comprising justices Surya Kant, M M S Bedi and Muttaci Jeyapaul of the high court had reserved its verdict after hearing lengthy arguments preferred by Union government, SGPC, Punjab government and the petitioners.

The Union government had made it clear before the HC that the notification issued by it in October 2003, withdrawing the voting rights of Sehajdhari Sikhs, was with “due application of mind and was within their domain”.

The HC has also examined the entire records pertaining to the notification including resolutions, communications, parliamentary debates, etc., especially in reference to section 72 of the State Reorganization Act, 1966.

• Sehajdhari Issue – (1) HC issued notice to Centre, Punjab, SGPC and Gurudwara EC; next hearing on 8 Feb. (2) Why situation is so confusing?
• NO change in poll schedule for SGPC, Clarifies Center; Badal want clarification on “Conspirary”
• SGPC Elections: Elect Panthic Candidate for better management
• SGPC elections delared; Govt. in admin overdrive, Amrinder Target Badal, says Badal’s hands are smeared with blood
• SGPC Elections: Irregularities in voter lists, Complainants term probe an eyewash

London, England (December 13, 2011): Around one hundred and fifty Sikh representatives from across the United Kingdom took part in a lobby at the UK Parliament organised by the Sikh Federation (UK).

Several human rights issues were raised at the lobby, which lasted for two hours, including the case of Professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar and the continued detention of (Bhai) Daljit Singh Bittu, chairman of Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) since August 2009 and the denial of justice for the Sikh Genocide 1984.

SSF President Parmjeet Singh Gazi adressing media outside British Parliament

Bhai Parmjeet Singh Gazi, the President of the Sikh Student Federation, had travelled from Punjab to UK to to give a first-hand account on these issues. He said that set norms were ignored at all levels in Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s case. At pre-trial state, the police tortured him in custody to extract false confession; during trial the judiciary failed to apply set standards of law like “proof beyond reasonable doubt” and at post-trial stage President of India failed to grant clemency, whereas Professor Bhullar fulfilled four out of seven clemency grounds, even on of which is normally considered sufficient to grant clemency.

He said that Bhai Daljeet Singh is arrested and detained due to his political dissent. His detention has resulted in halting the development of political process to secure justice of Sikhs. His detention has no legal base, as the prosecution has drastically failed to furnish even single peice of evidence against him during last two years.

Many senior Sikh leaders of UK, such as Bhai Sukhwinder Singh, Bhai Narinderjeet Singh Thandi and Bhai Gurjeet Singh Samra said that arrest and detention of Bhai Daljeet Singh Bittu due to political reason is particular cause of concern for Sikhs living in Punjab and abroad. They said that Daljeet singh Bittu is a prisoner of conscience and UK Government should use diplomatic means to prevent India from targeting political leadership of Sikhs for their political dissent.

Sikh leaders, Bhai Amrik Singh (first from right) and Bhai Dabinderjeet Singh (fourth from right), with British MPs during Sikh Lobby

He stressed that “as a general rule genocides are committed by the State or with it’s complicity, leaving prosecution of domestic courts could only insure impunity”, therefore international initiative has become necessary at this stage to secure justice for victims of Sikh genocide 1984.

Fabian Hamilton MP, the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for UK Sikhs, chaired the meeting alongside Dabinderjit Singh of the Sikh Federation who contributed on each of the issues. Fabian Hamilton confirmed he would facilitate meetings in the next few weeks with the National Union of Students and Amnesty International to assist with human rights campaigns involving Professor Bhullar and Daljit Singh Bittu.

Respect for the Sikh Identity was the second main issue and an update was provided on the trial at UK airports of checking the Sikh turban and a strategy for influencing the European Commission to implement similar procedures at airports across Europe. Sukhvinder Singh, an advisor to the Sikh Federation explained developments at the UK and European level.

Harnek Singh, one of the five Managing Directors of the Sikh Federation provided an update on Amritdhari Sikhs right to wear the Kirpan in public places e.g. sporting events and tourist attractions following the victories on the right to wear the Kirpan at the London Olympics 2012 and Lords Cricket Ground. He explained the significance of the Kirpan to an Amritdhari and many politicians agreed there needed to be much better awareness of the Kirpan. Nicky Morgan a Conservative MP confirmed she would be meeting the Tourism Minister later in the week and would take up the issue of the right to wear the Kirpan at tourist attractions, such as the London Eye and Madam Tussauds.

Bavinder Kaur, the Chair of the Sikh Womens’ Alliance, was asked to speak about the need for a stronger political voice for UK Sikhs, the importance of the Sikh Council UK and the need for the Coalition government to move away from dealing with one or two so-called ‘community leaders’. Many of the dozen or so MPs from all three of the main political parties that spoke at the lobby agreed that officials needed to change the way they interact with the Sikh community.

MPs that attended included a number of former Ministers – John Spellar MP, Pat McFadden MP and the former Foreign Secretary Rt. Hon. Margaret Beckett MP. The most significant contribution came from the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes MP, who spoke passionately at the June Freedom Rally in Trafalgar Square, recently visited Amritsar as promised and confirmed that a date for a Sikh delegation to meet the Deputy Prime Minister would be confirmed in early January 2012. He also committed to facilitate a schedule of meetings between the Sikh Federation and Ministers in a number of different Government Departments, including the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK), Bhai Amrik Singh, spoke at the end to specifically thank Fabian Hamilton, Simon Hughes and other politicians that participated in the lobby.

At the end it was agreed the next lobby towards the end of March 2012 will be combined with a celebration of Vaisakhi and a pledge was made to have senior Ministers and Shadow Ministers from the three main political parties present to answer questions on the sorts of issues raised at this lobby.

• Liberal Democrat British MP assures support for Professor Bhullar at International level
• British Government continue to raise concern for Professor DPS Bhullar
• SCI’s decision would impose blind impunity zone in Punjab: SSF
• HMA totally ignored Clemency grounds while rejecting Prof. DPS Bhullar’s plea
• Two decades of impunity: SCI set aside CBI probe against police officers accused of practising enforced disappearances

The Supreme court judges did not even bother to take notice of CBI investigation recommending chargesheet and trial against the accused police officers, and wide impunity enjoyed by the guilty police officers over last two decades, said Parmjeet Singh Gazi, President of Sikh Students Federation, in statement posted on website of the Organization today.

It is notable that investigation conducted by CBI had revealed that high rank police officers, including Punjab vigilance chief Sumedh Saini, were involved in enforced disappearance of father, uncle and friend of Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, in 1991.

Gazi said that widespread and systematic practise of enforced disappearance and secret killings was integral part of policing policy in Punjab during 1980s-90s. There are thousands of such cases, which were never investigated, and impunity level in Punjab is very high.

“The supreme court’s decision would further contribute in imposing blind impunity zone in Punjab, thus it is unfortunate.” he added.

• Two decades of impunity: SCI set aside CBI probe against police officers accused of practising enforced disappearances
• Pre-Trial stay in Professor Bhullar’s relatives’ disappearance case: SCI may pronounce decision on 7 December
• UK Sikh Lobby: Denial of Justice to 1984 Victims, death sentence of Prof. Bhullar and detention of Daljit Singh Bittu figured as major issues related to India
• Bhullar’s plea scheduled for hearing in Indian Supreme Court on 19 October
• Liberal Democrat British MP assures support for Professor Bhullar at International level