Speech delivered by D.S, Gill Advocate, General Secretary of the Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO) at a public Meeting on “Human Rights Violations in Punjab”.
Organized by Dr. Howard Adelman, Director Centre for refugee studies at York University Toronto on Sept 19, 1989.
Freedom of Conscience is the fundamental right and primary urge of every individual. It has been conceded by the top ‘most philosophers, statesmen and founders of most of the religions. The UNO too concedes this concept. According to the UN Chanter on Human Rights, all the Peoples (nation) have the right of self-determination so as to freely determine their political status and pursue their social, economic and cultural development.
But, unfortunately most of the active politicians of the present age, especially Indian, have refused to accept this concept in practice. Although as a whole, an overwhelming majority of the Indian people lack the freedom of conscience, the downtrodden and minorities are the worst sufferers in this area.
In Punjab the present sociopolitical situation is the direct outcome of the authoritarian trends especially within the State set up at the Centre and their discriminatory policies towards the Sikhs. A big section of the Punjab population asserted its right of self-determination demanding State autonomy through the Anandpur Sahib resolution but the ruling coterie at Delhi refused to appreciate this genuine and healthy concept. As the situation developed, it resulted into many complications in the State which are evident to everyone now.
The late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, aided by an impatient, upstart coterie increasingly used State violence to “settle” the matters in Punjab that could best be sorted out otherwise, With the 20 point programme ’proving damp squad and no Sther creditable plank at hand, the Congress party led by Indira Gandhi viewed ‘communal polarization in Punjab as a political goldmine. Most of the opposition parties in India, instead of exposing and fighting the Congress (I) ant secular crusade, backed the center and called for the stronger and stronger action against the Sikhs who were struggling for their just demands since 1982 in the form a democratic “Dharm Yudh” morcha.
The public was persuaded by the ruling class at Delhi through media propaganda to believe that the Punjab problem would be solved once “its mainspring in the golden Temple” was destroyed. But the operation Blue Star (an army attack) and mopping up operation called Wood rose proved to be counterproductive. This confrontation between Delhi and the Silks resulted in the assassination of Indira Gandhi followed by the Sikh camage in Delhi and elsewhere in India.
And it has been proved beyond doubt by the various public enquiry reports that November 1984 Sikhh massacre was organized, engineered and executed by certain Congress (I) top men in authority. The inaction of the Indian government in punishing the named culprits, is only strengthening the peoples belief that the entire massacre was conducted to punish and teach the Sikhs “a lesson” because the Prime Minister was assassinated by the two persons belonging to this community.
The democratic rights and civil liberties of the Sikhs have been constantly under attack for the past six years. These attacks have been further stepped up in Punjab. Large scale arrests, tortures of youths and their parents, destruction of their houses and property and fake encounters are the order of the day.
The government of India through its agents in Punjab and under a deep rooted conspiracy of elimination has killed in the so called encounters, escapes, disappearances and interterrorists group rivalry; hundreds of Sikh youths who, according to the Preamble to the Universal of Human Rights have been compelled as a last resort to take recourse to violence against the state tyranny and oppression. Many others have been arrested harassed and murdered because of their activities as lawyers, journalists, leaders of political groups and even because of their work in human rights or religious organizations.
During the last two years a number of Punjab Sikh Lawyers Council’s members like Mr. Rajdev Singh Barnala, Balbir Singh Cheema, Jaspal Singh Sodhi, Balwant Singh Dhillon and Jagmohan Singh and the PHRO activists Gurcharan Singh Ghuman, Advocate Gurdev Singh Benipal, Rajinderpaul Singh, G.S. Bal Advocate, Malvinder Singh Mali and including myself were arrested or detained in jails only because of our professional and human rights activities.
Undeclared political censorship has been imposed in Punjab, Raids, searches, arrests and imprisonment of “offending” journalists are the indications of the State repression on the press. Newspapers and journals belonging to the Sikh community and Dalit groups have been proscribed, viza viz Dignity, Paigam, Samparak, Jantak Lehar, Sant Sipahi, Quami Rajnti etc and their printers, publishers and editors like V.T Rajshekar, Sukhdev Singh, Kamaljit Kaur etc. have been booked under terrorist and seditious acts. Sukhdev Singh was detained in ail for six months. They have been terrorized and forced not to highlight the grievances and human rights situation of the Punjab and the Sikhs.
Even the Judiciary have not been spared. It has been terrorized into silence and subordination due to certain policies, interferences and enactment by the central government of dreaded legislation which have curbed the powers of the judiciary. Even where Judges have tried to do justice such as J.S. Mander, Judicial Magistrate Ludhiana, by taking up a criminal complaint against Union Minister Bhajan Lal he was transferred post haste in a most disgusting manner. Mander issued warrants of arrest of Bhajan Lal who, in his speech had said that the Sikh terrorists should be shot dead because they did not deserve to arrested and tried by the law courts. This complaint was filed by me as General Secretary of the Punjab Sikh Lawyers Council. The court proceedings have been stayed by the Supreme Court of India because the accused Bhajan Lal had pleaded for the transfer of the case from the Punjab to some other State because of security risks. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.
There have been extrajudicial killings and tortures even in judicial lockups, Four marked Sikhh youths were killed in Sangrur jail. The under trials of Nabba jail who were arrested from the Golden Temple in 1984 were tortured in the Lakha Kothi. Many Sikh militant leaders like Manbir Singh Chaberu, Tarsem Singh Kohar, SuIhde Singh Sulcha, Avtar Singh Pehlwan, Aroor Singh, Manjeet Singh Bhindi, and Roshan Lal Baraigi were taken out from different jails and murdered after showing them to have escaped from the police custody during transit. The PHRO reports on these human rights violations are testimony to it.
In Punjab, the Indian State has been continuing to contravene the Article 14 of the Interactional Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by enacting special laws such as the National Security Act (Preventive Detention), The Disturbed Area Act, The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. The most dreaded of these legislations s the $9th Amendment to the Indian Constitution which empowers the Centre to impose Emergency in Punjab whereby the right to life and personal liberty enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution has been taken away. These “black laws” have been enacted and made applicable only to Punjab.
More than 5,000 Sikhs belonging to all shades of opinion are rotting in jails without trial. These include leaders like Simranjeet Singh Mann, President Akali Dal (Mann) Prakash Singh Badal, former Chief Minister of Punjab; Gurcharan Singh To bra, Chief of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC); Dhanna Sigh, Panthic Committee member, Manject Singh and Harminder Singh Sandhu, President and General Secretary of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) respectively.
There is no rule of law in the State, fair trial is just not possible in face of these draconian legislations, The world known concept of criminal jurisprudence that a person is presumed to be innocent unless proved otherwise has been turned on its head and the onus has been laid down on the individual to prove his innocence.
Under the provisions of the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act special courts have been created for the trial of the Sikhs. These designated courts are mostly held in jails where open trial, any access to lawyers, press and the public are just not possible. These political courts are aimed at punishing the persons because of political and religious beliefs.
The PHRO’s recent report called “Security Forces as Private Senas (Armics)” reveals how the Punjab Police and paramilitary forces are themselves involved in unlawful and criminal activities including plundering and adjudication upon private disputes for considerations of money.
The secretive pro government death squads are operating in Punjab which have been assigned the job of assassinating the Sikkh rebels who are demanding an independent Sikh State in Punjab. One such gang leader was Santokh Singh Kala who has recently been killed by a militant group operating in Punjab. The so-called counter terrorist Santokh Singh Kala was responsible for eliminating more than 50 Sikhs and their families in Amritsar District alone. Kala had himself boasted of his mission being blessed by none other than the Indian Prime Minister and the Advisor to the Punjab Governor J.f. Rebeiro (Punjab Buldozed A PHRO report to the world on Operation Black Thunder IT p. 17).
The Rape of Punjab yet another report on Indian State’s indignities on Sikh women and children also reveals how the Punjab police has launched a massive, inhuman ‘aggression on the hapless women folk. We have evidence on how women have been made to suffer abuses in public, in front of family members. They were taken to police stations where they were stripped naked and paraded in front of their male relatives, In some cases they were mass raped by the police.
“The aim behind the aggression is to bring to submission the whole community and to show them that the state can go to any extent to stop the Sikh people from sympathizing with militants secking a separate country for the Sikhs.
But the Sikhs are too brave a nation to accept anything short of what does not ‘guarantee them the pride of place in India. ‘An essential thrust of my argument is on abandoning by Delhi of its confrontation course in Punjab. A policy of vendetta in dealing with a problem which is basically political and that of human freedom have worked nowhere; and it is unlikely to work in Punjab cither. A solution to the problem can be devised within a democratic frame work rather than through conflict and war.
The solution lies in granting a right of self-determination to the Sikhs as per stipulation of the UN Charter on Human Rights so that they can freely determine their political status and pursue their social, economic and cultural development according to the Sikh doctrine.
The PHRO, therefore, urges the public opinion all over the world to take note of these developments in Punjab and to do all in their power to make the Indian State see reason. Political solution is the only answer to the lingering Punjab problem because it is not a law and order as is wrongly being claimed by the government of India.
WSO convention
ONTARIO: The World Sikh Organization of Canada is holding a convention here from November 11 to 13 according to WSO Canada secretary S. Ajit Singh Sahota.
On November 11 there is a dinner meeting on World Peace and Human Rights. All are invited, For information contact S. LS. Bal (416) 4500000 and (416) 6652435.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 29, 1989
