RESOLUTION

We, the sons and daughters of bleeding Punjab (the Sikh Homeland) have assembled in Gurdwara Sahib, Richmond Hill, New York, on Saturday, January 27, 1990, to review the state of the Sikh Nation and solemnly declare the following:

Whereas throughout our 500 years old history, the Sikhs have invariably stood as the citadel of freedom and human dignity and against socio-economic and cultural injustice and political oppression:

‘Whereas the Sikh Commonwealth was the last independent state in the subcontinent until it was annexed by the British in 1849:

Whereas during the negotiations with the British for the independence of India, the Sikhs were one of the three principal parties along with the Hindus and the Muslims:

Whereas at the time of the partition of India in 1947, the Sikhs opted for an autonomous homeland within India, instead of a separate country:

Whereas the Sikhs put their trust, in good faith, in the Hindu majority and the solemn promises of M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, to share a common destiny in free India and were thus responsible for saving half of Punjab for India:

Whereas half a dozen Sikh Princely States—Patiala, Nabha, Kapurthala, Fairdkot, Jind and Kalsia—voluntarily merged with India, without a gun shot and ‘without the loss of a single human life:

‘Whereas soon after the partition of the country in 1947, the Sikhs discovered, to their dismay, that the promise of an autonomous homeland was a hoax. They found an increasing intensity of the majority’s socioeconomic and cultural imperialism trampling upon the elementary human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Sikhs:

Whereas the ruling regime started an organized campaign of denigrating the Sikhs and the Sikh heroes of independence movement by labeling the Sikhs as a “criminal tribe;”

Whereas the elected representatives of the Sikhs in the Constituent Assembly of India refused to sign the Indian Constitution and walked out of the Assembly declaring that the Constitution did not meet the commitments and solemn promises made to the Sikhs before the independence;

Whereas not only an autonomous homeland where the Sikhs could also experience the “glow of freedom” (as promised by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharalal Nehru) was denied, the Sikhs were systematically excluded from the reorganization of the state territories based on the language;

Whereas when finally a Punjabi-Suba (Punjabi speaking State) was established in 1966, some Punjabi speaking areas were arbitrarily excluded and taken away from Punjab;

Whereas Punjab’s savings worth billions of rupees were siphoned out of Punjab through the mechanism of nationalized banks and the denial of industrial licenses controlled by the ruling dynasty in New Delhi;

Whereas Punjab’s natural resources, e.g., water, energy, food products, etc., were controlled and allocated by the ruling dynasty in New Delhi, without the consent of the people of Punjab;

Whereas in the highly structured political system of India, the Ruling regime continuously undermined the powers of the state governments by reducing them to mere municipalities; and in this process Punjab was systematically disenfranchised through frequent dismissals of the elected governments at the whims of the ruling dynasty at New Delhi;

Whereas in several peaceful movements of mass protest from 1948 to the present, spanning over four decades, thousands of Sikh men, women and children went to jails (and hundreds of them were gunned down by the police); to retrieve their distinct national status which was lost during the partition fiasco of 1947;

Whereas in 1975, when Mrs. Gandhi’s election was declared invalid by the Judiciary, she imposed an emergency rule by decree, suspériding fundamental rights and basic freedoms. The instances of knock-at-midnight and arbitrary arrests became frequent. While the rest of India was silenced by the fear of oppression, the Sikhs continued their protest movement (1975-1977) until the emergency was lifted;

Whereas this continued peaceful movement for retrieving a distinct national status was subjected to brute force, particularly starting with the Asian Games in 1982;

Whereas in June 1984, Mrs. Gandhi ordered a full scale military invasion on the Golden Temple Complex (the center of Sikhdom) and scores of other holy Sikh shrines—indeed an attack on the Sikh sovereignty during which thousands of Sikh pilgrims; men, women and children were massacred under complete news blackout. All communications, postal and telegraph services, radio, TV and newspapers were cut off. Hundreds of them were arrested and an unaccounted number were carted away in trucks and burnt. Their families were not informed or permitted to perform the last rites. International Committee for Red Cross and Amnesty International’s requests for on sight visits were repeatedly rebuffed. The pretext for the invasion was to wipe out the Sikh radicals/nationalists in the Golden Temple Complex, even though no evidence has ever been presented in any court anywhere. Besides, there was not a single warrant or a court case pending against any one of them;

Whereas three days after establishing complete control of the Golden Temple Complex, the Indian army plundered and destroyed original Sikh relics. The Sikh Reference Library containing precious original manuscripts, museum, the art gallery and entire Toshakhana ‘were gutted—indeed an attack on the very foundations of the Sikh heritage;

Whereas in November 1984-after the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi—thousands of Sikhs were lynched to death or Burt alive by the hired mercenaries of the newly establish Rajiv Gandhi regime. Countless were pulled down from the buses and trains and slaughtered while the police and security forces, instead of protecting the innocent victims, became participants in the carnage,

Whereas these tragic events have inflicted deep wounds in the psyche of Sikh people, not a single case of murder of several thousand Sikhs was registered against the organized terror-gang led by the members of the ruling Congress (I) party of Rajiv Gandhi. Many high officials of the ruling party, who have been identified in many fact-finding reports by Human rights organizations, for having engineered the massacre of the Sikhs, continued to occupy high official positions—indeed some of them were rewarded with cabinet positions by Rajiv Gandhi;

Whereas instead of healing the wounds, the ruling regime unleashed a media blitz of vilification and disinformation to cover up the genocide of the Sikhs; to slander them all over the world, to distort the real issues and to inflict unprecedented psychological sufferings on the Sikhs at home and abroad;

Whereas several Draconian (black) Laws (including the 59th Amendment to the Indian Constitution) were passed denying the Sikhs due process or equal protection under law; denial of fair and open trials, summary executions in violation of the of the spirit of the Indian Constitution, the U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several other international covenants and conventions;

‘Whereas in the name if national security an unabashed state terrorism was unleashed on the Sikhs; branding them as “criminals” and subjecting them to arbitrary arrests and McCarthy style witch-hunts, sadistic torture and the cold blooded shooting of young men in false encounters—as repeatedly reported by Amnesty International;

Whereas it has been the State (under Rajiv Gandhi) which itself openly indulged not only in murder and assault (through officially organized “Black Cats” and Red Brigades”) but also in inhuman torture, molestation and gang-rape of women, including minor girls;

Whereas the Sikhs appreciate the united goodwill gesture of the new Government, under Prime Minister V.P. Singh, and wish it success in the restoration of justice and integrity in the highly corrupt and criminalized system of government, he has inherited from the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty,

Whereas the Sikhs’ long experience with broken promises, dishonesty, falsehood and betrayals by the successive Nehru-Gandhi regimes have left them no option but to take control of their destiny.

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:

  1. We reassert our inalienable fundamental human right of self-determination, as enshrined in the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to retrieve our sovereign entity as a free nation and to establish a Commonwealth of the Khalsa called Khalistan where fundamental rights of all people will be fully guaranteed, respected and protected.
  2. We urge the Government of India to peacefully withdraw Indian Military and Paramilitary forces from Sikh Homeland immediately.
  3. We are ready to negotiate with the government of India on all matters pertaining to the boundaries between. India and Sovereign Sikh State and orderly and peaceful transfer of power to the representatives of Khalistan.
  4. We expect that all the newly elected Sikh representatives to actively strive for the establishment of an independent sovereign Sikh State as stated above, failing which they will lose the support of Sikhs living in Punjab and elsewhere. However we will continue to support individuals sacrificing their lives and the organizations upholding the cause of the independence of the Sikh Nation.
  5. We shall earnestly strive to establish peaceful and friendly relations with India, other neighboring countries as well as with the international community of nations based on the principles of equality, mutual respect, noninterference, justice and peace in accordance with the UN. Charter and other International conventions and covenants.

This gathering of Sikhs at the Panthic Conference held at Sikh Cultural Society of New York on January 27, 1990, pays tribute to martyrs, Mr. Harminder Singh Sandhu, General Secretary, All India Sikh Student Federation, Mr. Jagdev Singh Khudian, and MP. And Mr. Sukhwant Singh Akannwali for their services in the struggle for the freedom of Khalistan.

RESOLUTION

We condemn the acts of state terrorism which took away the lives of these Sikh heroes and hold the Government of India fully responsible for these assassinations.

RESOLUTION

The Panthic Conference held at New York on January 27, 1990 takes a serious exception of the writings of Dr. McLeod in his book of Sikh Theology, “Rehatnamas” and “Janam Sakhis” and unequivocally question the authenticity of these presentations and urge him to make necessary corrections based on the relevant documentary information provided to him by the Sikh scholars.

RESOLUTION

This gathering of the Sikhs at the Panthic Conference held at Sikh Cultural Society of New York on January 27, 1990, extends its full support to Kashmir National Liberation for its struggle to achieve freedom for the Kashmiris and urge the Sikhs police and military personnel serving in the Indian Police and Army to consider the Kashmiris as your brothers and sisters and refuse to participate in the massacre of innocent Kashmir men and ‘women.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 2, 1990