WSN Ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh re­cently ad­dressed an event or­ga­nized by the Amer­i­can Sikh Cau­cus Com­mit­tee on 3 No­vem­ber, ti­tled, “Re­mem­ber­ing the 1984 Sikh Geno­cide and the Hu­man Rights Sit­u­a­tion in In­dia.” Re­vis­it­ing the 1984 pogroms in In­dia, Singh drew a long arc of his­tory from Holo­caust to the geno­cide in Rwanda and the sys­temic hate in­duced into the body polity of In­dia against mi­nori­ties, pri­mar­ily Sikhs and Mus­lims. He made a case for more and deeper en­gage­ment by the United States, the United Na­tions and other world pow­ers. Read­ers may also wish to watch the pro­ceed­ings by vis­it­ing the Face­book posts, which in­cludes the con­tri­bu­tion of other speak­ers too. A more de­fin­i­tive ver­sion of Jag­mo­han Singh’s pre­sen­ta­tion now forms part of the Con­gres­sional records.

DISTIN­GUISHED CON­GRESS­MEN John Gara­mendi, David Val­adao, Patrick Mee­han, Con­gress­woman Ha­ley Stevens, Cana­dian Par­lia­men­tar­ian Tim Up­pal, Po­lit­i­cal Scholar Shawn Nichols, At­tor­ney Tejkaran Kaur and fel­low Sikh men and women from across the world:

Greet­ings from Home­land Pun­jab!

I thank the Amer­i­can Sikh Cau­cus Com­mit­tee for this op­por­tu­nity to share my thoughts on Re­mem­ber­ing the 1984 Sikh Geno­cide and the Hu­man Rights Sit­u­a­tion in In­dia. 

I can­not but re­call Rwanda the mo­ment any­one men­tions the word Geno­cide. I can­not but think of the holo­caust while speak­ing about eth­nic cleans­ing and big­otry against peo­ple based on their re­li­gion. I can­not but re­mind the world’s great pow­ers of their val­ues and the pi­ous doc­u­ment of the United Na­tions called the Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights. We all de­sire peace and tol­er­ance and we all want Clo­sure for the wrongs.

The ac­count­abil­ity of politi­cians, ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cials and the po­lice have not been in­ves­ti­gated and fixed for the pogrom in In­dia in No­vem­ber 1984. 

Come 1/​11 and like 9/​11, though the or­der of the dates is dif­fer­ent in this part of the world, a cat­a­clysmic pall of gloom, frus­tra­tion in anger and a glim­mer of hope dawns on the Sikhs in their home­land Pun­jab and the Sikh Di­as­pora in In­dia and the rest of the world, in­clud­ing the United States of Amer­ica.  For some­one like me, who at that time was in met­ro­pol­i­tan Mum­bai, which did not go through the may­hem and mur­der as in Delhi, the re­call­ing of events as wit­nessed on the then state-owned tele­vi­sion and the then print me­dia, from Oc­to­ber 31 to 8 No­vem­ber 1984 re­mains a heart-wrench­ing, painful, dis­turb­ing and soul-shat­ter­ing ex­pe­ri­ence, even 37 years later.  The ac­count­abil­ity of politi­cians, ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cials and the po­lice have not been in­ves­ti­gated and fixed for the pogrom in In­dia in No­vem­ber 1984. 

With the ad­vent of so­cial me­dia, hun­dreds of ac­counts that had so far re­mained un­known hid­den events and ex­pe­ri­ences have been tum­bling out of the closet. Vic­tim fam­i­lies have been nar­rat­ing the mur­der­ous crescendo of those days in the by­lanes of Delhi and more than a hun­dred In­dian cities, on­board trains across the coun­try and on roads where it was easy to way­lay any un­sus­pect­ing Sikh man or woman. This has added more pain.

New Delhi is push­ing us to be­come a per­ma­nent Rwanda. 

The ghet­toi­sa­tion of the poor Sikh vic­tims for the last 37 years, with­out much change, is a chal­lenge that is still look­ing for a so­lu­tion. Not just jus­tice for those who per­pe­trated the crimes against hu­man­ity -fully geno­ci­dal in in­tent and ex­e­cu­tion, but also ef­forts to bring to clo­sure the pain of the chil­dren and wid­ows left be­hind. 

Since you know US pol­i­tics bet­ter, let me put it this way. Pres­i­dent Joe Biden has been a life­long cen­trist. In­di­a’s left-of-cen­tre In­dian Na­tional Con­gress party, with the Gand­his at the helm of af­fairs, moved de­ci­sively to the right in its eco­nomic out­look, but then it also seemed to have bowed down to the rightwing Naren­dra Mod­i’s Bharatiya Janata Par­ty’s agenda of ha­tred, big­otry and de­nial of hu­man rights. In­di­a’s com­mu­nists have been less rev­o­lu­tion­ary even in terms of push­ing for­ward the eco­nomic agenda. 

Much as In­di­a’s mi­nori­ties found the ap­proach of the Con­gress prob­lem­atic, but they now find them­selves sand­wiched be­tween the ul­tra-rightwing party com­mit­ted to turn­ing In­dia into a Hindu theo­cratic na­tion-state and the op­po­si­tion Con­gress party which is too afraid to stand up for any ideals of a civil so­ci­ety lest it loses the Hindu vote bank.

As some of In­di­a’s lead­ing po­lit­i­cal thinkers of­ten say, of the two key con­tenders of power in the coun­try, one is pro­gram­mat­i­cally com­mu­nal, the other is prag­mat­i­cally com­mu­nal.

As some of In­di­a’s lead­ing po­lit­i­cal thinkers of­ten say, of the two key con­tenders of power, one is pro­gram­mat­i­cally com­mu­nal, the other is prag­mat­i­cally com­mu­nal. As for the Left par­ties, the en­tire bunch spent decades bear­ing ei­ther the stan­dard of Moscow or of Bei­jing. Be­tween In­di­a’s GOP – the Con­gress party – and our ver­sion of Trump’s bunch called Bhar­tiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left has been gamed out of the sys­tem.

In such a sce­nario, who should mi­nori­ties en­gage with to de­mand min­i­mal safe­guards? Where is the de­bate about mul­ti­ple pogroms of Sikhs or Mus­lims un­der the regimes of both par­ties? Where is the fo­rum where we can de­bate if the mas­sacre of Sikhs in 1984 or the killings of Mus­lims in 2002 were in­ci­dents of flash com­mu­nal vi­o­lence or sys­tem­atic geno­cide backed by the regime? When was the last time that the United Na­tions took up the cause of jus­tice for 1984 with the In­dian gov­ern­ment or at any ap­pro­pri­ate in­ter­na­tional fo­rum which may have led to op­pro­brium to In­dia?

One can un­der­stand how, af­ter its ex­pe­ri­ence in Ser­bia, the Bill Clin­ton ad­min­is­tra­tion fought shy of di­rectly in­ter­ven­ing in Rwanda when it had the in­for­ma­tion, time and abil­ity, but his­tory will for­ever record that one of the world’s worst cy­cles of killings could have been stemmed if Wash­ing­ton had its ear to the ground.

I am here to sim­ply re­mind Wash­ing­ton, the in­flu­en­tial law­mak­ers and opin­ion lead­ers that the sit­u­a­tion in In­dia is no dif­fer­ent to Rwanda. 

I am here to sim­ply re­mind Wash­ing­ton, the in­flu­en­tial law­mak­ers and opin­ion lead­ers that the sit­u­a­tion in In­dia is no dif­fer­ent. Pub­lic lynch­ings of mi­nori­ties are par for the course, ev­i­dence of atroc­i­ties against mi­nori­ties and those who speak up for them are now well doc­u­mented and avail­able to any­one who can surf the in­ter­net, and ha­tred and big­otry are be­ing sys­tem­i­cally made part of ma­jori­tar­ian life.

When you change school text­books to cre­ate false ver­sions of the past, re-write the out­come of bat­tles fought cen­turies ago, and wield a mega­phone to tell peo­ple of cer­tain eth­nic­i­ties to leave the coun­try and go to an­other one, of­ten Pak­istan, then no one is left in any doubt that you are clear­ing a path­way to­wards geno­cide.

One sim­ple ac­tion would be en­sur­ing vis­its to In­dia of the US­CIRF, Amnesty In­ter­na­tional and Hu­man Rights Watch who are be­ing de­nied the right to in­de­pen­dently in­ves­ti­gate vi­o­la­tions. Let the Amer­i­can Sikh Con­gress Cau­cus an­nounce set­ting up a Geno­cide Vic­tims Tor­ture and Trauma Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in New Delhi and work to­wards it.

Our con­cerns are duly re­flected in the Hu­man Rights In­dex, var­i­ous re­ports about civil lib­er­ties and even the re­ports and state­ments of the US State De­part­ment, the United States Com­mis­sion on In­ter­na­tional Re­li­gious Free­dom de­c­la­ra­tion of In­dia be­ing “a coun­try of par­tic­u­lar con­cern”, but what In­di­a’s mi­nori­ties ex­pect from those claim­ing to be the stan­dard-bearer of democ­racy is more de­ci­sive ac­tion.

One sim­ple ac­tion would be en­sur­ing vis­its to In­dia of the US­CIRF, Amnesty In­ter­na­tional and Hu­man Rights Watch who are be­ing de­nied the right to in­de­pen­dently in­ves­ti­gate vi­o­la­tions. Let the Amer­i­can Sikh Con­gress Cau­cus an­nounce set­ting up a Geno­cide Vic­tims Tor­ture and Trauma Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in New Delhi and work to­wards it.

Wash­ing­ton must study some of the dra­con­ian pieces of leg­is­la­tion passed by the In­dian Par­lia­ment un­der Con­gress and BJP regimes, and eval­u­ate these on the scale of what is hu­mane and what is in­hu­man.

Wash­ing­ton must study some of the dra­con­ian pieces of leg­is­la­tion passed by the In­dian Par­lia­ment un­der Con­gress and BJP regimes, and eval­u­ate these on the scale of what is hu­mane and what is in­hu­man. Were these laws passed by adopt­ing proper pro­ce­dures man­dated in In­di­a’s Con­sti­tu­tion? The an­swer is YES. Are these laws in keep­ing with the spirit of democ­racy, and can pass the sim­ple test of good sense, com­pas­sion and prag­ma­tism? NO.

Peo­ple be­long­ing to a mi­nor­ity can be killed in wide­spread vi­o­lence, as hap­pened to Sikhs in 1984. Or they can be killed through struc­tural vi­o­lence so that there is no smok­ing gun. Deny them in­dus­tri­al­i­sa­tion, edge them out of en­tre­pre­neur­ship, push them into re­source-in­ten­sive agri­cul­ture, frus­trate all land re­forms, squeeze them into a mar­ket-ori­ented econ­omy, main­tain a vice-like grip over how much the farmer fi­nally earns, not sup­port the an­cil­lary vo­ca­tions, make higher ed­u­ca­tion so pricey that few can dream of go­ing to col­lege, de­stroy the pub­lic school net­work, de­mol­ish the pri­mary health­care sys­tem, and presto! Where is the need to go out and kill peo­ple in large num­bers?

Mine is not a lib­eral wish­list. I am not ask­ing you to live up to some higher value sys­tem than the next guy. Mine is an SOS – this is about the re­li­gious mi­nori­ties’ right to live, of­ten just their right to re­main alive. That’s how min­i­mal am I ask­ing for.

My kids are be­ing caught and killed by mobs or thrown into jail by the gov­ern­ment be­cause they may have ex­pressed their wish to have a beef ham­burger af­ter watch­ing a Hol­ly­wood movie.

Peo­ple in In­dia are be­ing killed by regime-backed mobs be­cause they might have a brisket in their fridge. My kids are be­ing caught and killed by mobs or thrown into jail by the gov­ern­ment be­cause they may have ex­pressed their wish to have a beef ham­burger af­ter watch­ing a Hol­ly­wood movie. Do you know that we have laws on the statute to jail peo­ple for eat­ing what is avail­able on col­lege tuck-shops and can­teens across Amer­ica and Eu­rope?  

What do you think will hap­pen to me if I am found with a recipe book for beef-based cuisines? NOTH­ING. Be­cause I will be dead if they find the book on me. What will you call the killings of peo­ple based on their culi­nary tastes?

That’s why I like the ubiq­ui­tous yard signs that are now found in every De­moc­ra­t’s house: “In This House, We Be­lieve — Black Lives Mat­ter / Wom­en’s Rights Are Hu­man Rights / No Hu­man Is Il­le­gal / Sci­ence Is Real / Love Is Love.” 

New Delhi is push­ing us to be­come a per­ma­nent Rwanda. State tele­vi­sion, state-in­clined TV chan­nels, ra­dio and umpteen web­sites spew poi­so­nous pro­pa­ganda every day. Some of the worst ped­dlers of ha­tred are fol­lowed on Twit­ter by the In­dian Prime Min­is­ter. The United States should come up with a white pa­per about ei­ther the crimes of this man and his regime or their achieve­ments.

How do you pre­pare mil­lions of peo­ple to re­main ready to as­sault any­one found cheer­ing for a team that wins a cricket match? By the sys­temic pro­ject of in­fus­ing ha­tred in so­cial dis­course. As I speak here, young stu­dents are in jail be­cause they cheered for the team that won the match last week. 

I am not ask­ing you to im­pose sanc­tions on In­dia. I am ask­ing you to use your moral au­thor­ity and cen­sure the wrong­do­ings. I am ask­ing you to force the regimes to at least be­come hyp­ocrites again. I could shame a hyp­o­crit­i­cal gov­ern­ment at least. I can’t even shame a gov­ern­ment that is bla­tant about its pro­ject of turn­ing In­dia into a Theo­cratic Hindu Na­tion-State. 

I only want you to add:  Geno­cides are bad. / Sys­temic vi­o­lence based on re­li­gion is ir­re­li­gious. / Peo­ple must not be as­saulted be­cause they are a mi­nor­ity. / Kind­ness Is Every­thing.”

On a se­ri­ous note, I be­seech you to en­cour­age the processes of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. In­dia is far more di­vided to­day along re­li­gious lines than the sup­port­ers of Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez and Don­ald Trump. We can only save our souls by work­ing to­wards rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, truth-telling, in­tro­spec­tion, a deep gaze within our­selves, and a sys­tem in place that ties laws, regimes, man­i­festos, pub­lic pro­nounce­ments and so­cial dis­course to min­i­mal stan­dards of pro­bity, moral­ity, democ­racy and hu­man rights. 

The United Na­tions Char­ter of Hu­man Rights is a good marker to start with. I, for one, have no other op­tion ex­cept to seek and fight for uni­ver­sal wel­fare. It is the cen­tral tenet of my faith – Sikhism. Every per­son of my faith has to re­peat these words to him­self or her­self every sin­gle day. Sar­bat Da Bhala -Wel­fare of All. No ex­cep­tions. 

I should not be pun­ished for fol­low­ing that motto, for be­ing a Sikh. 

That’s why I like the ubiq­ui­tous yard signs that are now found in every De­moc­ra­t’s house: “In This House, We Be­lieve — Black Lives Mat­ter / Wom­en’s Rights Are Hu­man Rights / No Hu­man Is Il­le­gal / Sci­ence Is Real / Love Is Love.” 

I only want you to add: 

Geno­cides are bad. / Sys­temic vi­o­lence based on re­li­gion is ir­re­li­gious. / Peo­ple must not be as­saulted be­cause they are a mi­nor­ity. / Kind­ness Is Every­thing.”

We will be clear ei­ther way about which side of the line the world’s old­est democ­racy stands by your de­ci­sive trans­for­ma­tive ac­tion.

In this part of the globe, you ei­ther save hu­man­ity to­day or pre­pare to live with an­other Rwanda on your con­science for­ever.

Thank you very much.