The se­nior lead­er­ship of the Sikh pro-free­dom party Dal Khalsa, on ex­pected lines, re­leased its No-Elec­tions man­i­festo in Am­rit­sar to­day, re­it­er­at­ing its stand for ref­er­en­dum in Pun­jab through a Que­bec or Scot­land type right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion for the peo­ple of Pun­jab.

While main­stream Pun­jab-based and In­dian po­lit­i­cal par­ties have fi­nalised their can­di­dates and elec­tion pitch for the 13 Pun­jab Par­lia­men­tary con­stituents is steadily in­creas­ing by the day, the pro-Sikh free­dom party Dal Khalsa has pre­sented its ex­haus­tive no-elec­tion man­i­festo, based on its ide­o­log­i­cal stand, mis­giv­ings about In­dian de­mo­c­ra­tic work­ing and fal­lac­ies of the In­dian con­sti­tu­tion; along­side in a po­lit­i­cally cor­rect move, Dal Khalsa an­nounced sup­port for Paramjit Kaur Khalra from Khadoor Sahib, Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann from San­grur and Dr Dharamvir Gandhi from Pa­tiala con­stituen­cies re­spec­tively.

As­sert­ing that the In­dian de­mo­c­ra­tic sys­tem was not con­ducive to at­tain­ing a sov­er­eign Pun­jab through the cur­rent elec­toral processes, Dal Khalsa stated that af­ter a se­ries of dis­cus­sions and de­bates, the party has re­solved to stay away from the elec­tions to be held on May 19.

Party pres­i­dent Harpal Singh Cheema, in his open­ing re­marks in the me­dia meet said that “elec­tions can­not be sub­sti­tute to right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.”

“Elec­tions can­not be sub­sti­tute to right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.”

Harpal Singh Cheema, Pres­i­dent, Dal Khalsa

“The so­lu­tion to the Pun­jab prob­lem lies in ref­er­en­dum un­der United Na­tions and not elec­tions un­der In­dian dis­pen­sa­tion.  Our party en­vis­ages an arrange­ment like Que­bec in Canada and Scot­land in the United King­dom, wherein it is pos­si­ble to make right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion an elec­tion agenda, sub­se­quently lead­ing to the right to se­cede”, he added.

“Dal Khalsa as an or­ga­ni­za­tion is not against the prin­ci­ples of democ­racy, but has de­cided to stay away be­cause of se­ri­ous mis­giv­ings in the In­dian elec­toral sys­tem. Sikh as­pi­ra­tions can­not be sac­ri­ficed at the al­tar of such a game of elec­tions where money, liquor, drugs and even caste and class are key fac­tors.”

” “Dal Khalsa wishes good luck and suc­cess to Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra – as both had emerged as sym­bols of dis­sent and re­sis­tance to In­dian dom­i­na­tion, and also to so­cial­ist leader Dr Dharamvir Gandhi, who has been re­lent­lessly fight­ing for con­tentious is­sues per­tain­ing to rights of Pun­jab and its peo­ple.” 

De­spite their stand, the Dal Khalsa lead­ers said, “they wish good luck and suc­cess to Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra – as both had emerged as sym­bols of dis­sent and re­sis­tance to In­dian dom­i­na­tion, and also to so­cial­ist leader Dr Dharamvir Gandhi, who has been re­lent­lessly fight­ing for con­tentious is­sues per­tain­ing to rights of Pun­jab and its peo­ple.”

The Hur­riyat Con­fer­ence has boy­cotted elec­tions in Jammu and Kash­mir and the NSCN (IM) in Na­ga­land; Dal Khalsa en­dorsed their stand and ex­pressed sol­i­dar­ity and affin­ity with the strug­gling Kash­miris and Na­gas.

Rub­bish­ing the In­dian elec­tion processes, the Dal Khalsa No-elec­tions man­i­festo states, “In­dian elec­tions as colo­nial in na­ture, feu­dal in char­ac­ter and ul­tra-na­tion­al­is­tic in ap­proach. The choice it of­fers is be­tween the devil and the deep sea.”

Hur­riyat Con­fer­ence has boy­cotted elec­tions in Jammu and Kash­mir, NSCN (IM) in Na­ga­land and Dal Khalsa in Pun­jab. 

At the press meet, party spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh re­it­er­ated his par­ty’s stand that, “The com­pul­sory oath of al­le­giance to the In­dian con­sti­tu­tion and to the unity and in­tegrity of the coun­try at the time of fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers is a shame­ful In­dian method­ol­ogy to thrust pa­tri­o­tism on the can­di­date.”

“The com­pul­sory oath of al­le­giance to the In­dian con­sti­tu­tion and to the unity and in­tegrity of the coun­try at the time of fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers is a shame­ful In­dian method­ol­ogy to thrust pa­tri­o­tism on the can­di­date.”

Kan­war Pal Singh, spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa

Pos­ing ques­tions to the peo­ple of Pun­jab and par­ties con­test­ing elec­tions, the Dal Khalsa doc­u­ment asked them to pon­der over the hard fact that though Sikhs have been par­tic­i­pat­ing in elec­tions since 1947 on­wards, es­pe­cially through the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, they have formed gov­ern­ments, sent Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives to the In­dian par­lia­ment, yet the ground sit­u­a­tion is un­changed. The Pun­jab prob­lem is still a prob­lem.

Tak­ing a clear line, Dal Khalsa un­am­bigu­ously stated that, “The is­sue con­fronting the Sikh Na­tion is not good or bad gov­er­nance brought about by re­plac­ing one cat­e­gory of rulers or faces with oth­ers, but is a mat­ter of the fu­ture of a peo­ple, who as­pire to be­come the mas­ters of their own des­tiny.”

DOC­U­MENT: DAL KHALSA DE­CLARES SELF-DE­TER­MI­NA­TION AND NO-ELEC­TION POL­ICY 

Dal Khalsa Pol­icy on “Par­lia­men­tary Gen­eral Elec­tions 2019 in In­dia”

Dal Khalsa is sub­mit­ted to Guru Panth and Guru Granth

Dal Khalsa owes al­le­giance to Akal Takht Sahib and to no other worldly power or au­thor­ity.

Dal Khalsa is a his­tor­i­cal move­ment with roots in the eigh­teenth cen­tury.  In its pre­sent avatar, Dal Khalsa emerged on Pun­jab’s re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal do­main on 13 Au­gust 1978, with the vi­sion to re­gain lost Sikh sov­er­eignty and the mis­sion to wage a strug­gle for jus­tice, rights and free­dom.

Dal Khalsa re­calls that the Sikh coun­try –Pun­jab, was an­nexed by the im­pe­ri­al­ist British in 1849 and handed over on a plat­ter to In­dia in 1947, with­out the ex­press will of the Sikhs and other peo­ples of Pun­jab. No doubt, to­day, his­tory has over­run the Sikhs, yet the yearn­ing for self-rule lies be­low the ve­neer and how this will un­fold in fu­ture is a mat­ter of vi­sion, con­jec­ture and spec­u­la­tion.

Dal Khalsa en­vis­ages an arrange­ment like Que­bec in Canada and Scot­land in the United King­dom, wherein it is pos­si­ble to make right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion an elec­tion agenda, sub­se­quently lead­ing to the right to se­cede.  When done through an UN-ad­min­is­tered ref­er­en­dum/​plebiscite, it can be the most peace­ful and de­mo­c­ra­tic pos­si­bil­ity for change.

Dal Khalsa en­dorses the un­mit­i­gated stand of the Hur­riyat Con­fer­ence boy­cotting elec­tions in Jammu and Kash­mir and that of the NSCN (IM) in Na­ga­land and main­tains affin­ity and rap­port with the strug­gling Kash­miris and Na­gas.

Dal Khalsa as­serts that the In­dian de­mo­c­ra­tic sys­tem is not con­ducive to at­tain­ing a sov­er­eign Pun­jab through the cur­rent elec­toral processes.  With­out the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, elec­tions are mean­ing­less. Sikh as­pi­ra­tions are too dear to be sac­ri­ficed at the al­tar of such a game of elec­tions where money, liquor, drugs and even caste and class are key fac­tors.

Dal Khalsa be­lieves that leg­isla­tive or par­lia­men­tary elec­toral vic­tory can­not be a sub­sti­tute for the goal of re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence of Pun­jab. The des­tiny of our peo­ple is even more im­por­tant than good gov­er­nance.

Dal Khalsa salutes the mar­tyr­dom of thou­sands who laid down their lives in the strug­gle for an in­de­pen­dent and sov­er­eign Sikh state -Khal­is­tan and we would not be­tray their sac­ri­fice.

Dal Khalsa ap­pre­ci­ates the role, con­tri­bu­tion and stand of the Sikh Di­as­pora which has con­stantly and con­sis­tently up­held the dig­nity, ho­n­our and dis­tinct iden­tity of the Sikh peo­ple and un­flinch­ingly up­held the Sikh right to their own coun­try in the face of overt and covert op­po­si­tion of the In­dian state through its for­eign mis­sions and the non­cha­lance of the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity.

Dal Khalsa ques­tions the en­forced al­le­giance to the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia dur­ing elec­tions.  The com­pul­sory oath of al­le­giance to the In­dian con­sti­tu­tion and to the unity and in­tegrity of the coun­try at the time of fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers is a shame­ful In­dian method­ol­ogy to in­sult and thrust pa­tri­o­tism on the can­di­date.

Re­view­ing the work­ing of the In­dian con­sti­tu­tion, the Sikh po­lit­i­cal par­ties, es­pe­cially the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal and the fa­cade of elec­tions that does not de­liver, Dal Khalsa notes:

In 1950, when the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia was adopted, the two Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives did not sign the Con­sti­tu­tion and cat­e­gor­i­cally de­clared, “We do not ac­cept this con­sti­tu­tion.” Over the decades, the dy­nam­ics have changed but with more than a hun­dred amend­ments, the Con­sti­tu­tion has seized to be sacro­sanct. To cre­ate an en­vi­ron­ment and mech­a­nism for ful­fill­ing as­pi­ra­tions of na­tion­al­i­ties and re­gional iden­ti­ties, rad­i­cal changes have to be made in this Con­sti­tu­tion.

The di­chotomy in the Sikh stand to­wards elec­tions is pal­pa­ble. Sikhs in gen­eral and es­pe­cially those ow­ing al­le­giance to the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, with their du­bi­ous and du­plic­i­tous machi­na­tions, swing like a pen­du­lum be­tween protest­ing, yearn­ing, crib­bing and com­plain­ing of dis­crim­i­na­tion, re­li­gious in­ter­fer­ence and in­jus­tices by all or­gans of the In­dian state yet con­tinue to par­tic­i­pate in elec­toral pol­i­tics, hop­ing against hope.

In fact, the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal has been sub­sumed in the In­dian po­lit­i­cal co­nun­drum, lost its core char­ac­ter, re­lin­quished its goal of true fed­er­al­ism and yet failed to achieve the de­mands of the state and its peo­ple.

From 1947 on­wards, Sikhs, es­pe­cially through the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, have formed gov­ern­ments, sent Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives to the In­dian par­lia­ment; have been nom­i­nated to high Con­sti­tu­tional, ad­min­is­tra­tive and armed forces posts. De­spite this, the sit­u­a­tion has not changed at all.  The Pun­jab prob­lem is still a prob­lem.

Sikhs of Pun­jab must con­sider this:

Pun­jab does not have its own cap­i­tal city, Chandi­garh is a shared cap­i­tal; the wa­ters of Pun­jab un­abat­edly flow to Haryana, Delhi and Ra­jasthan with­out roy­alty to the ri­par­ian state; our lan­guage and cul­ture is en­dan­gered in Pun­jab; Ar­ti­cle 25 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia still cat­e­go­rizes us as Hin­dus, plethora of laws for Hin­dus gov­ern us and all at­tempts by Sikhs to have their own Sikh Per­sonal Law has been thwarted and dom­i­nant main­stream po­lit­i­cal par­ties refuse to ac­cept our dis­tinct iden­tity. Jus­tice for June 84, No­vem­ber 1984 and ex­tra-ju­di­cial killings by se­cu­rity forces post-1984, still eludes us.

Sikhs have been sub­jected to gross atroc­i­ties and hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions and all arms of the In­dian state have col­luded to keep Sikh geno­cide un­der the wraps.

Our revered Guru Granth Sahib is un­der at­tack and in­ci­dents of sac­ri­lege by state-spon­sored de­ras and cults have in­creased.

The flight of Sikh hu­man cap­i­tal from Pun­jab, the ever-wors­en­ing drug abuse prob­lem, the in­creas­ing num­ber of farmer sui­cides, the tardy ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem, job­less­ness and more, cry for ever-last­ing so­lu­tions.

What has the Sikh com­mu­nity gained through par­tic­i­pa­tion in the In­dian elec­toral sys­tem?

Is pre­sent day Pun­jab even close to what we were thrust with in 1947?

In such a re­gres­sive sys­tem and dom­i­nat­ing po­lit­i­cal sce­nario, can Sikhs be mas­ters of their own des­tiny?

For Sikhs of Pun­jab that would sup­port main­stream par­ties and can­di­dates, Dal Khalsa has a mes­sage:

Those Sikhs sup­port­ing the BJP-SAD and Con­gress should shame them­selves and re­call the litany of in­jus­tices, pre-1984 and post-1984, com­plic­ity of these par­ties in sac­ri­lege in­ci­dents, pa­tron­iz­ing anti-Sikh de­ras and cults and giv­ing shel­ter to guilty and tainted cops be­fore pick­ing up the gaunt­let for such par­ties.

Dal Khalsa de­clares:

Dal Khalsa has no faith in the cur­rent In­dian dis­pen­sa­tion and that the party and its mem­bers will not par­tic­i­pate in the elec­toral cha­rade of In­dia.

Dal Khalsa has a clear and un­mis­tak­able mes­sage for the peo­ple of Pun­jab. The In­dian elec­tions are colo­nial in na­ture, feu­dal in char­ac­ter and ul­tra-na­tion­al­is­tic in ap­proach. The choice it of­fers is be­tween the devil and the deep sea. The mi­nor­ity rep­re­sen­ta­tion that we get upon elec­toral vic­tory leads to nowhere.

Dal Khalsa is pru­dent and not non­cha­lant in its stand. The in­alien­able right of the Sikhs to de­cide their own fu­ture can­not be bartered for any­thing.

Nev­er­the­less, Sikh na­tion­al­ist leader Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra -wife of ex­tra-ju­di­cially killed hu­man rights cru­sader Jaswant Singh Khalra and so­cial­ist leader Dr Dharamvir Gandhi, have cho­sen to plunge into the elec­toral bat­tle to ad­dress lin­ger­ing Sikh con­cerns and hu­man rights is­sues. Notwith­stand­ing our de­ci­sion to boy­cott LS polls, Dal Khalsa wishes them good luck and suc­cess in their bat­tle.