Professor Gurtej Singh, Dr. Aulakh, Dr. A.S. Sekhon, Other Sikhs Present Case for Human Rights and Freedom to UN Body in Geneva

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 14, 2008 – On June 12, Sikh leaders Professor Gurtej Singh, Professor of Sikhism; Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan; and Dr. Awatar Singh Sekhon, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Sikh Affairs, presented the case for Sikh human rights and freedom to Interfaith International, an arm of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in connection with the Eighth Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

They also spoke on June 10 when Dal Khalsa UK, headed by Sardar Manmohan Singh and Sardar Pritpal Singh, presented the case on the repression of Sikhs by the Indian government. Also speaking at that session were Ranjit Singh, a lawyer from Britain, Sardar Sandhu, OBE, of England, and others.

Professor Gurtej Singh told the Human Rights Council that India is practically a police state. The media and the courts connive with the administration against minorities. If you are a Sikh, Christian, or Muslim, you will be persecuted.

The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State Magistracy and published in The Politics of Genocide by Inderjit Singh Jaijee. According to the Movement Against State Repression (MASR), the number could be as much as ten times that high if it were not for the efforts of Sikhs outside India. According to a report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political prisoners in India without charge or trial. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984! The Sikh diaspora must continue to expose the atrocities committed by the Indian government against the Sikhs and other minorities.

India has killed more than 300,000 Christians since 1948, over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, 2000 to 5000 Muslims in Gujarat, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, Dalits, and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide." Tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. We demand the immediate release of all these political prisoners.

Not only minorities are persecuted. Even lower-caste Hindus are persecuted by upper-caste Hindus in India. Recently, a Punjabi newspaper in England reported that a Dalit woman named Prembai, age 55, was burned to death for trying to get water from the village water pump. When she refused to move, upper-caste Hindus set her on fire. Her body was 80 percent burned. This is similar to the treatment meted out to a Dalit police constable who went into the temple on a rainy day and was stoned to death.

“India constantly boasts that it is the world’s largest democracy,” said Dr. Aulakh. “What kind of democracy kills its minorities and treats its lower-caste Dalits worse than animals?” he said. “High-caste Hindus will not allow the shadow of a Dalit woman to fall on them, yet they do not mind raping her. This kind of hypocrisy can only happen in India, the ‘world’s largest democracy,’” he said. “It is not a democracy, but what James Madison called ‘the tyranny of the majority,’” he said. “It is the worst kind of tyranny where minorities are tortured, murdered, burned alive, and raped. There is no kind of recourse in the legal system or the press. They openly side with the regime.”

India is not one country, but a political construct thrown together by the British for their administrative convenience. It has 18 official languages and many distinct religious and cultural groups. Like Austria-Hungary, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and other such multinational states, it is doomed to disintegrate. This will happen sooner rather than later. Brigadier Usman Khalid presented a strong case for a confederation of South Asian states, similar to the Common Market.

The Sikh Nation ruled Punjab from 1710 to 1716 and from 1765 to 1849. It was a secular state in which Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims all participated in the highest levels of the government. The Sikhs declared independence on October 7, 1987, naming their country Khalistan. Khalistan will be free in the very near future. Sikhs will never submit to the repression. “Khalsa Bagi Yan Badshah.”

“The time has come to liberate Khalistan and the other minority nations,” Dr. Aulakh said. “This hearing moved our cause forward. Let us take a strong stand for freedom.”

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This material is circulated by the Council of Khalistan, which is registered with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the Council of Khalistan, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab. The material is filed with the DOJ where the required registration is available for inspection. Registration does not indicate approval of the contents by the U.S. Government.