Sikhs Protest Indian Independence Day

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 14, 2008 – Sikhs from around the East Coast gathered in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC today to protest the celebration of Indian Independence Day. Similar demonstrations were held in London, Australia, San Francisco, Europe, and throughout the world to protest India’s repression of Sikhs and other minorities.

Protestors chanted slogans such as “India out of Khalistan”, “Khalistan Zindabad”, and others. They distributed information about India’s brutal repression of Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and other minorities.

“While India celebrates, minorities mourn,” said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of Khalistan, the Sikh homeland that declared its independence on October 7, 1987. “They continue to commit genocide and they continue to celebrate,” he said. “All around the world, Sikhs and friends of the Sikh Nation gather to protest India’s genocide and repression. We salute all who are participating in these demonstrations.”

India has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State Magistracy and human-rights groups and reported in the book The Politics of Genocide by Inderjeet Singh Jaijee. It has also killed over 90,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, and thousands of Christians and Muslims elsewhere in the country, as well as tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalits (“Untouchables,” the dark-skinned aboriginal people of South Asia), Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide." Is that what India is celebrating?

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. Some have been in illegal custody since 1984! Amnesty International reported that tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners. We demand the immediate release of all these political prisoners.

Indian police arrested human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra after he exposed their policy of mass cremation of Sikhs, in which over 50,000 Sikhs have been arrested, tortured, and murdered, then their bodies were declared unidentified and secretly cremated. He was murdered in police custody. His body was not given to his family. The police never released the body of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke after SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered him. Ghotna has never been brought to trial for the Jathedar Kaunke murder. No one has been brought to justice for the kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra. The only witness to the Khalra kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randhawa, has been repeatedly harassed by the police. In one incident, he was arrested for trying to give a piece of paper to the British Foreign Minister outside the Golden Temple.

Missionary Graham Staines was murdered along with his two sons, ages 8 and 10, by a mob of militant, fundamentalist Hindu nationalists who set fire to the jeep, surrounded it, and chanted “Victory to Hannuman,” a Hindu god. None of the people involved has been tried. The persons who have murdered priests, raped nuns, and burned Christian churches have not been charged or tried. An Indian newspaper reported that the police were ordered not to get involved in the Gujarat massacre, a frightening parallel to the Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984. “Is Jaswant Singh Khalra celebrating? Is Jathedar Kaunke celebrating? Is Graham Staines celebrating?,” Dr. Aulakh asked. “How can a democracy celebrate the kind of violent repression that claimed their lives?”

“Although Sikhs gave 80 percent of the sacrifices for India’s independence, India has massacred Sikhs since achieving independence,” said Dr. Aulakh. He noted that the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Joginder Singh Vedanti, was recently dismissed at the behest of the Indian government after calling for a free Khalistan. He also noted the arrests of several Dal Khalsa members and other Sikh activists for marching, making speeches, and raising the Sikh flag. “How can such acts be crimes in a democracy?”, Dr. Aulakh asked.

“Only a sovereign, independent Khalistan will end the repression and lift the standard of living for the people of Punjab,” Dr. Aulakh said. “The traitors of the Sikh Nation will not be forgiven by the Khalsa Panth. The essence of democracy is the right to self-determination,” he said. “Democracies don’t commit genocide.”

History shows that multinational states such as India are doomed to failure. Countries like Austria-Hungary, India’s longtime friend the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and others prove this point. India is not one country; it is a polyglot like those countries, thrown together for the convenience of the British colonialists. It is doomed to break up as they did.

“As Professor Darshan Singh, a former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, ‘If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh’,” Dr. Aulakh noted. “We must continue to press for our God-given birthright of freedom,” he said. “Without political power, religions cannot flourish and nations perish. We must make our voices heard for our fellow Sikhs and all oppressed minorities in India ,” Dr. Aulakh said. “The time to free Khalistan is now.”

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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.