V.Para No. VI. Government has repeated its false claim to guarding the country’s integrity.
We remind the government that it is the Sikhs only who stood for the unity of India to the bitter end and twice in recent history made the Punjab a gift of the Sikhs to India. We have also reminded that the government of India themselves violated the integrity of India in Kashmir Tibet and N.E.F.A etc.
IX No XVII government had stated about surplus water of River Ravi and Beas.
We say that the Punjab has absolute right over its rivers being a riparian state and that no water would be surplus after all the areas are brought under irrigation and the lands arbitrarily confiscated from the Pakistan refugees by not allotting land in lieu of the total area that they had left behind in Pakistan There was no justification in thus arbitrarily not giving them full compensation. Land could have been allotted in the adjoining areas of other states because India belongs to every Indian Unfortunately ‘Heads we lose and tails Bharat Sarkar Win!’ That is the tragedy. In sub-para two mentions is made of the proposal to refer the river waters dispute to a tribunal. We counter by saying that this amounts to denying equal protection of the laws to the Sikhs. They are being compelled to accept unjust conditions.
XI Para NOV government has alleged that under the four formulas given in this paragraph Akalis did not accept any of them.
We counter and say that government is only talking at the Sikhs and does not mean business. Sikhs have lost faith in their commissions etc
IX P. XXVL. Government stated that the Anandpur Sahib Resolution laid a claim to some areas in Himachal and Rajasthan on the basis of language. We say that the reorganization of the states were supposed to be on linguistic basis. It is the Punjabi Hindus who have disowned their mother tongue. The case should have been decided on language and not on extraneous consideration of this state or that.
XIll XXX government has alleged that certain demands included in the Anandpur Sahib Resolution go against the basic principles of the country’s unity and integrity which are given in the Constitution of India.
We suggest that this parrot-like repetition of the Constitution standing in the way of acceptance of Anandpur Sahib resolution is a fib. The Constitution has already been amended so many times and preparations appear to be afoot to amend it for bringing in the presidential form of government. The government should learn a lesson from the People’s Republic of China which have introduced new article in their Constitution to provide for special administrative units already mentioned elsewhere.
Do XXXI We submit that the Sarkaria Commission will not solve the problems. It will go like other commissions against the Sikhs and will not give any independent decision. It is also mentioned that India does not accept the Sikh claim for nationhood. We submit that the Sikh nation was accepted and was recognized by Britain Russia and many more long before India became independent in 1947 by having accepted Mr Jinnah’s two-nation theory. Sikhs sat with India and Pakistan as a nation invited by the British government to take part in the negotiations for the devolution of sovereign power to the Indian subcontinent in 1947 Sikhs were one of the three parties. Government of India should not try to write them off now.
Do XXXII This is regarding second language status for Punjabi in Haryana and in other states. It is submitted that linguistic chauvinism will not pay already we have Sanskirt Radio News Bulletin in the Punjab and Sanskrit as a compulsory subject in the armed forces central schools whereas teaching of Punjabi language to Sikh school children is denied. We suggest that all regional languages should be made official in the State like in Switzerland in which all the four languages are recognized for official use.
XXXV government has talked about protecting the rights of tribal people in Nanital and Tarai and Bhabar areas in U.P. The tribals are said to have parted with sixteen thousand five hundred acres land.
We submit that the Sikhs were deprived of lakhs of acres of their land in Pakistan. They also deserve some sympathy.
XV XXXVIL Some facts about the Akali agitation in XVI XXXXI connection with Article 25 (2) We are of the opinion that the Akali leadership was caught on the wrong foot and wanted to use this incident for an honorable way to get out of the agitation.
XVIII government has used the word fanatic for the Sikhs and spiritual parmukh for Nirankari Gurbachana
We refer the government to the Akal Takhat Hukamnama on this issue We also remind the government of their conspiracy to always give them a bad name and for having created ‘proxy outfit’ for fighting against the Sikh religion. The Nirankari Sikh clash was engineered by the government and was a link in a chain of events culminating in the attack on the Akal Takhat. Government has also mentioned the common culture of Punjab being destroyed by the Sikh extremists. We submit that the Punjabi Hindus took the initiative in denying their mother tongue which is 60% of the common culture destroyed thereby. Why should the Sikhs be blamed for it? Punjab vernacular press is known for its persistent hate-campaign against the Sikhs who are not averse to living with other societies and cultures because the Guru has intoned ‘Na Ko Vairi Nahin
Begana sagal sang ham Ko ban Aai’
-do-II Mention is made of demands of all Punjabis.
In this connection we want to say that the ‘Sikhs can take the horse to water but cannot make it drink’. The Punjabi Hindus led by the Elitist-Urbanite’ group opposed the demands of the rural Punjab under the garb of communal tension.
Do IH government has alleged about violence in the Punjab and the Sikh leaders’ failure to condemn it and the collection of arms in the Golden Temple Complex.
We remind the government that the Akali leaders had repeatedly demanded judicial enquiry into all incidents of violence including the fake encounters and the role of the secret agencies.
XVILI government says violence started with the clash between fanatic Sikhs and. the murder of spiritual leader Gurbachan Singh on 24.4.80 It is also started by the government that the extremists objective was to destroy the common culture of the Punjab It is submitted that the government attitude is basically hostile to the Sikhs and therefore the language used is fanatic for the Sikhs and spiritual for the hedonist and permissive Nirankari.
The common culture of the Punjab is a figment of imagination only. The 85% rural life cannot mix up with the Urbanite having no emotional and social contacts with the rural life whom they regard as inferior and in possession of Rakhshesh Budhi and Pashu-Birti There are no marriages between urban families of note and the rural life. Furthermore the Punjab Hindus fired first by disowning their mother tongue
18-14 The Government has attempted to throw the blame of violence on the Akali leaders because the latter did not counter it. In reply it may be repeated that the responsibility for violence in the Punjab rests with the Government for the following reasons.
- a) Socio-economic Reason: There are a large number of families who were used to send their children to the army. The government denied them their fundamental right of equality of opportunity under Article 16 by arbitrarily cutting down their numerical strength in the army. This led to large scale unemployment among a martial class.
- b) The vernacular press and non-Sikh politicians had all along followed a polity of Sikh-baiting and anti-Sikh hate-campaign.
- c) A large number of Sikhs being killed and thrown into the Rajasthan Canal and others killed in fake encounters. This led to revenge and retaliation which is a natural social component of the Punjabi culture.
- d) The non-Sikh urban community in the Punjab has developed a paranoid personality. It cries wolf as a matter of obsession for which administrative measures are of no avail Added to this the Government has thrown the onus for amity on the Sikhs thus putting a premium on non-Sikh intransigence. This led to the creation of Pakistan and is bound to a repeat performance with Khalistan.
Para-5 The Government has mentioned Lala Jagat Narayan’s murder and the subsequent arrest of Bhindranwalla-further followed by violence.
It is submitted in reply that Sant Jarnail Singh was wrongly arrested to intimidate the Sikhs because he was later on released. It may be mentioned that the third agency was responsible for acts of violence at Mehta Chowk subsequent to the arrest of Bhindranwala.
Para-7 The alleged sacrilege of Hindu Temples: It is on record that Punjab Congress leader had informed their high command that cows were slaughtered near Kharar in Ropar District and their severed heads transported to Amritsar etc by an official of the Punjab State Congress Committee
- Mention has been made of an attempt at the life of the Punjab Chief Minister
It is stated in reply that the Government has not thought it fit to prove these in a court of law and always made such Stage-managed drama in excuse for killing Sikh youth in fake encounters. The overall policy of the Government was to provoke the Sikhs then use the army against them.
Do 11 Mention is made of incidents of violence before the Lok Sabha on October 11,1982 A.D.
In reply it is stated that the Sikhs wanted to make a peaceful demonstration but the Government resorted to unprovoked killings. A photograph was published in some English newspaper showing a security man taking an aim and firing to kill Sant Jung Singh who was not shown indulging in violence. However Government has chosen to blame its own acts of commission on the Sikhs. This has become the standard practice.
do12. Mention has been made of the release of Akali satyagrahis numbering about thirty thousand in October 1982 and the Home Minister’s speech in the Parliament on November 141982 asking the Akali Dal to call off its agitation.
In reply it is submitted that the Government was not sincere and it was only trying to talk at the Sikhs. The release of the Akali satyagrahis was not a well-meaning hint. It was hypocrisy plain and simple.
Mention is also made of Republic Day demonstration to lower the Government prestige internationally.
In reply it may be remembered that Madras officially boycotted the Independence Day ‘celebration’ in 1984. This has not annoyed the Government of India because it is sympathetic to the Tamil extremists of Sri Lanka Government’s attitude towards foreign extremists is patronizing while its own Sikh citizens are not even allowed freedom of speech and peaceful agitation They are also not allowed to put their case before the international community as happened in November 1983 through Longowal’s letter delivered to some Commonwealth countries
do13. Mention is made of do-or-die program and the recruitment of one lakh Murjivras (Suicide Volunteers)
In reply it is stated that no do-or-die program was carried out and the alleged Suicide jathas were not really Murjivras and it is a fact that they are all Chirjivras (long-lived ones). It may be added that Longowal only threatened but never meant. Calling off the Azad Panth Sapath was another example of such empty threats.
Do 14 Mention is made of another appeal on March 31, 1983 to call off their pre to which the Akalis organized On April the subsequent violence.
In reply it is submitted that Government’s appeals for calling off agitation is kid stuff.
Rasta Roko was peaceful but the security forces killed twenty two innocent Satyagra his in addition to burning some tractors and trollies, thereby adding a new dimension of barbarity to the Government’s repressive attitude.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 9, 1991
