The culmination of British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations was a great unifying factor for a very large portion of humanity. In the last four decades, the Commonwealth has had its ups and downs and has adapted itself to be able to deal most effectively with the problems facing it. Some two decades ago, South Africa had to leave this unique association because of its apartheid policy. Today it is the most important issue facing the Commonwealth leaders. In essence, it is the issue of human rights and self-determination. The Commonwealth has attempted to resolve the issue in more than one way. It would not be wrong to place on record that India spearheaded the present campaign.
The initiative ken by the Commonwealth is indeed laudable. However, it must not be forgotten that the exploitation and oppression of power minorities does not suffer any geographic limits. It does boast of a long history. As the leaders of the Commonwealth gather together to discuss the RIGHTS OF MAN they must remember that the youthful Prime Minister of India, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, on the one hand champions the cause of the black South African and promotes the right of self-determination of the Tamils in Sri Lanka while, on the other, he subjects Punjab and the Sikhs to the same kind of segregation and denial of self-determination. Mr. Gandhi appears to be a clever man but, sadly, without vision. He launches all kinds of efforts to seek short-term solutions to what he perceives as the Punjab problem. He is not willing or perhaps not able to grasp the core issues at stake, and Punjab has no solution in isolation. The Indian society has been slowly but surely brutalized under the banners of ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’. The very fundamentals of democracy have been eroded in India. There are trappings. There is a Parliament. And every few years there is a jamboree of vote catching and vote counting. But the untouchables are burnt with impunity. The Dalit’s are denied their rightful share of rights, The Sikhs are pushed to the brink of annihilation. There is no freedom of expression in Punjab. The domestic Press is muzzled. The international Press is not permitted in, Draconian laws impose ‘stringent boundaries on what can be said. There is no freedom of movement in Punjab. Those Sikhs who live outside Punjab have to seek special permission or obtain special visas to visit their friends and families. And more often than not those facilities are denied to them. Those Sikhs who can effectively question the denial of human rights by the Government of India, those who can show that the Indian Constitution is the biggest fraud played upon the largest number of human beings, those who can and do demand from Mr. Gandhi that he match his actions to his words… they are called terrorists, extremists and separatists. The irony of the situation is that the Sikhs are not separatists; they are the separated. They did not want to splinter India nor do they want to do so now. They want to bring about a greater cohesion and larger unity. And they know that such a cohesion and unity cannot be obtained with-out devolution of power and equality of status not merely on paper but in practice. They demand a Khalistan not to balkanize India but to lay the foundation of the United States of South Asia — a zone of peace, not conflict.
While the Commonwealth leaders deliberate upon the subjects pertaining to South Africa and talk about sanctions against its present regime, they must also keep in mind that the Sikhs of Punjab and ‘elsewhere are so much a part of the Commonwealth as the black people of South Africa were just a couple of decades ago. And the Sikh people have a claim on the Commonwealth. They must also remember that the very tools of justice activated against South ‘Africa at the instance of the Commonwealth, must also be used against a member of the Commonwealth for similar crimes. They must also begin to find ways of restoring peace in South Asia as they tackle the problems of South Africa because the carbuncle of oppression is ready to explode into a civil war. And in all honesty they must consider applying sanctions, political, diplomatic and economic, against the Republic of India, world’s so called largest democracy where the practice of politics ensures dynastical rule and link all the aid to and trade with India with its performance in the field of human rights of all its minorities — both power and numerical ones — and especially the Sikhs. They must remember too that the Sikhs are not, as they never have been, a frightened lot. And today they are ready, like the black people of South Africa, to make the supreme sacrifice for human dignity and honor; for equality and justice; for vacating the tyranny from their land.
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Article extracted from this publication >> July 18, 1986
