KURUKSHETRA: The second Haryana Sikh conference held here on Sunday, September 24 demanded the institution of an inquiry headed by a high court judge to go into cases of innocent people implicated falsely and now rotting in jails.
In a resolution the conference demanded that all officials discriminating against Sikh farmers be removed and their genuine demands met in the Hindu dominated state. Punjabi should be made the second official language of the state as 42 percent of the people spoke it. Also a Punjabi academy should be set up to promote culture and heritage it was demanded.
The conference wanted greater representation of Sikhs in corporation and committee of the state government. The government was warned not to indulge in propaganda against Sikhs. Speakers laid stress on unity of the Sikhs.
Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora said he could not live as a second class citizen. He called for unity among Sikhs and said he had formed the Sikh Forum with this specific purpose. He decried suppression of Sikhs by the Rajiv Gandhi government but said this would prove counterproductive. He urged the ‘Sikh community to raise funds for the propagation of the faith. We should have our newspapers in Punjabi and English, he said. The publication of news was more important than construction of gurdwaras as the world was being misled to believe all Sikhs to be extremists and terrorists, he added.
Kuldip Nayyar, a noted journalist made an appeal to preserve Punjabi cultural heritage and to
save the Punjabi language from being Sanskritised.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 29, 1989
