When the G20 gath­ers in Am­rit­sar to hold the Labour20 sum­mit, the Sikh body Dal Khalsa will hold a par­al­lel Pun­jab Sum­mit on 19 March, with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions, schol­ars, farmer rep­re­sen­ta­tives and ac­tivists to high­light Pun­jab’s view­point on labour, so­cial, eco­nomic, ed­u­ca­tion, agri­cul­ture, hu­man rights, and po­lit­i­cal as­pects im­pact­ing the pop­u­la­tion of Pun­jab in par­tic­u­lar and the Sikhs across the globe.

FOL­LOW­INGl­low­ing up on the heels of a let­ter writ­ten to Delhi mis­sions of the G20 par­tic­i­pants, Dal Khalsa will hold a one-day Pun­jab Sum­mit to de­lib­er­ate upon how the G20 de­ci­sions, or the lack of them, will im­pact Pun­jab in var­i­ous ways.

Speak­ing to the me­dia, party po­lit­i­cal af­fairs sec­re­tary Kan­war Pal Singh said “The peo­ple of Pun­jab have many is­sues with New Delhi. We are rais­ing them again as In­dia has the pres­i­dency for a year and we want to see how se­ri­ous In­dia is about its role with re­spect to all na­tion­al­i­ties and mi­nori­ties.”

“In­dia has a lot to an­swer. Dur­ing its pres­i­dency, the In­dian gov­ern­ment is try­ing to pre­sent a goody-goody pic­ture to the world, which in re­al­ity is con­trary to the ground sit­u­a­tion. This is a grim re­minder that war­rants the at­ten­tion of the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity. All claims of democ­racy and jus­tice fall flat when it comes to Sikhs and other op­pressed peo­ples.”

“We are at re­ceiv­ing end and we have no other op­tion left to us other than to ap­proach the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity for sup­port and in­ter­ven­tion. He said in the light of our dis­cus­sions and de­lib­er­a­tions and in the larger in­ter­est of Panth and Pun­jab, a “State of The Pun­jab” doc­u­ment that will arise out of the de­lib­er­a­tions on 19 March, will be pre­pared and sent to G-20 na­tions and the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity and UN fo­rums, he added.

Party Gen­eral Sec­re­tary Paramjit Singh Mand said the top­ics out­lined for de­lib­er­a­tions in­cludes: In­dian State med­dling in Sikh re­li­gious af­fairs, Colo­nial/​im­pe­ri­al­ist rule of In­dia in Pun­jab, Dis­re­spect and vi­o­la­tions of Hu­man Rights of Strug­gling na­tion­al­i­ties, in­dige­nous peo­ple and mi­nori­ties, Pre­sent day In­dian Gov­ern­ment in­flu­enced un­der Hin­dutva ide­ol­ogy saf­froniz­ing the ed­u­ca­tional sys­tem and im­pos­ing one lan­guage, one cul­ture on the re­li­gious and eth­nic mi­nori­ties, State’s in­jus­tice and dis­crim­i­na­tion to po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, State en­gi­neer­ing im­mi­grant in­flux to change de­mog­ra­phy of Pun­jab, Im­pact of State poli­cies on agri­cul­tural economies of the farm­ing com­mu­nity, Open­ing of the Wa­gah bor­der for trade and con­tri­bu­tion for agri­cul­ture goods in a time of global food cri­sis, Role of the smug­gler-politi­cian-po­lice nexus in flour­ish­ing drug men­ace, State por­tray­ing the strug­gle for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion as a law-and-or­der prob­lem and re­fus­ing to ac­knowl­edge it as a  po­lit­i­cal con­flicts thirst­ing for po­lit­i­cal res­o­lu­tions, In vi­o­la­tion of ri­par­ian prin­ci­ple , the con­tin­ued loot of nat­ural re­sources es­pe­cially river wa­ters, Black­mail­ing or arm twist­ing of me­dia to toe State’s line and think­ing, snoop­ing over so­cial me­dia, ban­ning and dis­abling so­cial me­dia ac­counts of groups and in­di­vid­u­als.

Clar­i­fy­ing their po­si­tion, Dal Khalsa it­er­ated that they wel­come all G20 par­tic­i­pants in true Pun­jabi tra­di­tion. Yet, it added, we can­not ig­nore the cur­rent sta­tus of Sikhs and the Pun­jab.

“It’s our role and re­spon­si­bil­ity to tell the G20 par­tic­i­pants that while peace and progress go hand in hand, peace fol­lows with jus­tice and eq­uity. Peace can’t be es­tab­lished when state re­pres­sion and in­jus­tice is the or­der of the day.”