LONDON: The Punjab Human Rights Organization will meet British Members of Parliament at the House of Commons on July 19 to inform them about the violation of the human rights of the Sikhs.

Darbara Singh Gill Secretary PHRO met Anthony Coombes, Secretary of Parliamentary Human Rights Group, and discussed the situation as well as possible solutions.

  1. Gill is touring various countries to share information regarding human rights situation in India particularly in Punjab.

On behalf of the PHRO Gill said, we in Punjab feel that the ruling party’s Punjab strategy initially was so shaped as to take revenge from the people of Punjab because they were in the forefront

of the Indian people’s struggle against the Emergency (197577). Secondly, the then Indira Gandhi Government wanted to try a “Secular Dictatorship” for the sprawling diverse India. That’s why when the Congress (I) returned to power in 1980, Punjab was deliberately and calculatedly designed as political laboratory where instruments of dictatorship were put to test, trained and perfected. The enterprise threw up a strong cadre of civil and police bureaucracy equipped with a whole specie of undemocratic and fascist laws.

The 59th Amendment of the Indian Constitution is the latest weapon in the ruling party’s fascist armory by which an emergency can be imposed at any time by the Indian government in the Punjab. But there already exists an undeclared emergency. False encounters have become a way of life with the police and other security forces, indescribable methods of torture have been introduced that ‘may put to shame as mild mannered any fascist rulers in the world, several thousand men and women are rotting in jails, many without trial and even without charges. The entire system has become brutal.

“The deliberate departures from the Constitution are evident and for this Delhi rulers are fully responsible. Democratic rights and civil liberties of the Sikhs have been constantly under attack for more than five years. These attacks have been further stepped up recently in Punjab. Large scale, “artistes,” tortures of the Sikh women are the height of the State repression.”

He recommended that the following steps be taken immediately:

  1. In the first instance the 59th amendment to the Constitution should be rescinded. In addition all the antidemocratic black laws enacted for Punjab should be released.
  2. All prisoners held in connection with the Punjab problem should be set free or tried under the normal democratic laws.
  3. All those responsible for the November 1984 massacre of Sikhs following Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination should be brought to book ‘as possible. Those responsible for fake encounters in Punjab should also face the process of law.
  4. There should be a headcount of the causalities resulting from the political turmoil in Punjab. There is absence of knowledge of those who suffered at the hands of the State and its agencies. The state has been odd handed all these years; it has only given the lists of causalities as a result of violence indulged in by private groups and individuals. Without the head count a proper plan of relief and rehabilitation cannot be thought of.
  5. Those who lost their positions in public and private sector services as a sequel to the Punjab problem should be reinstated. These included military and police officials whose services were dispensed with under emotional stress by the authorities.
  6. In keeping with the spirit and social aims of the freedom movement reflected finally in the All Indian Congress Working Committee resolution favoring the creation of “Punjab speaking State ‘out of the (then) existing State of Punjab”, strictly on linguistic basis. Thus not only the Punjab speaking areas in Haryana and Rajasthan but also those in Himachal Pradesh should be merged into Punjab. More specifically the areas comprising Bhakra, Pong and other hydroelectrically projects should be transferred to Punjab.
  7. The constitution right of Punjab to its river water resources (Entry 17, List I Schedule 7) should be restored and respected in to and not curbed or curtailed through devious means. In tum Punjab should show goodwill towards its neighbors and allow water supplies on the basis of equitable bilateral time bound agreements ‘on consideration. The controversial, politically motivated, S.Y.L. canal should be dismantled forthwith.

The implementation of the above mentioned schedule will certainly create its own momentum.

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 7, 1989