Dear Mr. Prime Minister.
It is not often that the Punjab is able to get a Prime Minister who is prepared to hear its voice. In fact, this opportunity is coming our way after half a decade. We had many woes to pour into the Prime Minister’s ears when we last had the opportunity. They have by now proliferated. Ours is along tale of injustices perpetrated upon us by those functionaries in the country’s system of administration whose sense of right and wrong was qualified by their irrational hatred of the tiny Sikh minority. The highest ranking political leaders often violated the solemn oaths of their August offices to malign, denigrate and decimate the Sikhs. Since 1947, we have noticed deliberate attempts to desecrate Guru Granth Sahib, our living Guru. Holiest of our shrines have been razed to the ground and our people have been burnt alive in the streets of the capital of the country. Inspite of it all, we have never heard a comforting voice, never a word of regret or even of sympathy. If we clamor too loud, it is not because we are apprehensive of not being heard by you, but through you, we wish to reach a wider audience. We also wish to shame the people whom the enormity of their crime has not been able to shame.
Since ours is along tale, we hope it will be possible for the world at large to hear it through an open Oasis inquiry into what has been happening to the Sikhs since 1947. We are particularly keen to let our countrymen know about the political status offered to us before 1947 in free India and what happened to those solemn promises. For these purposes, circumstances leading to the attack on Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar and thirty-eight other shrines in the Punjab in 1984 may also be investigated by a competent forum in the open manner suggested above. Like all human beings throughout history, _we are keen to mourn out dead and to complete the funeral ceremonies. In the last decade or so many thousands of Sikhs have fallen victims to state terrorism. The recent cases of Kanwaljit Singh and Jaswant Singh Khalra show that the process is continuing. There were many thousands whose bodies were not returned to their relatives. The Supreme Court of India has unearthed the elimination of one thousand such victims whose bodies were clandestinely disposed of by the Punjab Police. The number of those who have simply disappeared is expected to Tun into many thousands, (Amongst them is the valiant fighter for Human Rights, Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra, Sadly, the theory now is that he may have joined the victims of state terrorism whose fate he was engaged in investigating).
We will be grateful if the Prime Minister can provide to us the list of those killed by the police and the armed forces since 1983, and can help in recovering the missing. This will go a long way in mitigating the macabre misery of those plagued by the gruesome uncertainty regarding their near and dear ones. In the peculiar circumstances of our case, the memory of martyrs, whose bodies were not returned, may be the best gift that you may be in a position to give us immediately. Asking for a gift of this nature is what we have been reduced to in the last half century by the overwhelming permanent cultural majority; it will distress you to know that the holiest shrine of Sikhism, Sri Darbar Sahib the only Sikh place of pilgrimage is still under siage by police and paramilitary forces. Although three Prime Ministers, including yourself, have been there to pay homage, the siege continues. Police and paramilitary forces also occupy most of the rooms in the temple inn meant for pilgrims. We request you to order withdrawal of all troops; Sikhs cannot be free until their shrine is a tightly held prisoner in the style of forces of occupation.
There is then the question of thousands of Sikhs rotting in the prisons all over India and some are held abroad in behalf of India. Most of them are languishing without trial and have completed longer terms than they are required to undergo for any possible crime under the law, Some are held under laws which have long since expired, It does no credit to any civilized state to hold them in that manner, One prominent case of this kind is that of the completely innocent young Sardars Ranjit Singh and Sukhvinder Singh who have spent ten years in captivity in New York jail waiting for orders on extradition proceedings. Prosecution lawyers on behalf of India have gone to the shameful extent of fabricating documents to implicate them in a fresh criminal case. Details regarding their case are appended to this memorandum. The case of Sardar Raghbir Singh is also so grave that the European Parliament has thought it fit to censure Great Britain regarding it. We request that steps be taken to get all such persons everywhere released at the earliest.
The water of Punjab’s rivers has been looted at gun point against the provisions of national and international law. Our puppet Chief Ministers have been forced to sign agreements to give it away as once our Maharaja Dalip Singh was made to ‘present’ the Kohinoor to Queen Victoria. We have spilt much blood to retrieve our lawful heritage and the gift of God, but without success. Our blood cannot be returned but the water which is as precious as blood can be. Our very simple request in this case is that all agreements concluded so far have been concluded under duress: these may all be scrapped. If found desirable thereafter, the matter be handed over to the Supreme Court of India to be dealt with in accordance with the law and the constitution of India. Loot of our hydroelectric power must also be stopped.
Chandigarh, the capital of the Punjab, was built to compensate the state for the loss of the bewitching eternal city of Lahore. But by base stratagem and sordid diplomacy it was excluded from the Punjab. The cliche that ‘it rightly belongs to the Punjab and will eventually go to it’ was repeated at regular intervals by all concerned at all levels. Never the less it took the central government twenty years to decide that it should go to it. Since January 26, 1986, when the final decision was taken, access to the capital still alludes the Punjab. The state continues to be a tenant in its own city. Perhaps the honor of rectifying the anomalous situation has been reserved by fate for you. We request that the city be handed over to the Punjab at the earliest.
It will surprise you to know that the matter of completing the Punjabi speaking state has been hanging since November 1, 1966. The Punjabi Region was demarcated by an act of the Indian Parliament a decade earlier, but certain Punjabi speaking areas were excluded from the state on its re organization. Spurious census figures repudiated by the Parliament as being vitiated by communalism were used to exclude these areas. The wrong may now be righted and the Punjabi speaking areas adjoining the Punjab may be again restored to the Punjab. We are prepared to do an exercise with your representatives to help you decide the exact extent of the Punjabi speaking state.
It is a matter of great satisfaction for us that your government is already seized of the matter of autonomy to the constituent units of the be another day when we can approach you again for redressing several other grievances, for removal of several difficulties of great magnitude which we have to put up with because we are Sikhs. A person of your sensitivities cannot fail to notice that all that the Sikhs are asking for is justice. It is strange that they should have to demand justice in a democracy. We just want to sound a note of warning, that, the forces which have denied it to them so far may make a last bid effort to convert you to their diabolical design of deliberate denial of justice. We request that until Justice can’ be done, justice according to the Constitution must be done. Immediate and effective measures may be taken to preserve the constitutional rights of the Punjab and to protect the human nights of the Sikhs. Sant Baba Ajit Singh, Singh Sahib Bhai Darshan Singh, Singh Sahib Bhai Jasbir Singh, Gurtej Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 2, 1996
