Step­ping up its cam­paign for self-rule with­out any dom­i­na­tion from In­dia, Dal Khalsa is hold­ing a ‘Right to Self-de­ter­mi­na­tion March’ at Hoshiarpur, Lud­hi­ana and Zira in the Pun­jab on 26 Jan­u­ary as In­dia will cel­e­brate its sev­en­ti­eth Re­pub­lic Day across the coun­try.

Vol­un­teers and ac­tivists of Dal Khalsa will march on the streets of three Pun­jab cities car­ry­ing Sikh Flags and plac­ards in their hands to con­vey their clar­ion call for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion for the peo­ple of Pun­jab.

“We be­lieve the only way for­ward to re­solve the Indo-Sikh so­cial, re­li­gious, cul­tural and po­lit­i­cal dis­putes is to set in mo­tion the process for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion with the UN stand­ing as guar­an­tor.”

Speak­ing to the World Sikh News, Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­warpal Singh said that “this is a move to pre­pare Sikhs and other Pun­jabis to un­der­stand the nu­ances of this peace­ful method to get the right of self de­ter­mi­na­tion un­der the UN treaties and con­ven­tions and to re­it­er­ate how since Nehru’s speech of 3 June 1947, In­dia has sus­tained its neg­a­tive pos­ture to this.”

Young leader Ran­vir Singh hold­ing aloft the ban­ner of re­volt, pro­claimed that “we all know In­di­a’s po­lit­i­cal stand on the sub­ject but we re­it­er­ate that In­dia is duty bound to ho­n­our its in­ter­na­tional com­mit­ment by virtue of be­ing sig­na­tory to rel­e­vant UN con­ven­tions and covenants.  The young teacher-leader of the Sikh Youth of Pun­jab Prof Paramjit Singh Mand said “self-de­ter­mi­na­tion is the in­alien­able right of all na­tion­al­i­ties and peo­ples, in­clud­ing the peo­ple of Pun­jab.”

While 26 Jan­u­ary is cel­e­brated as Re­pub­lic day in In­dia, our march on the streets of Pun­jab would be a fol­low up of this right and a launch pad for en­gag­ing In­dian rulers re­gard­ing their du­ties, com­mit­ment and oblig­a­tions un­der the In­dian con­sti­tu­tion and in­ter­na­tional law. It is also our in­ten­tion to “high­light In­di­a’s con­sti­tu­tional wrongs, in­jus­tices and de­nials.”

The state­ment is­sued at the press meet read, ‘The In­dian Con­sti­tu­tion has robbed the Sikhs of their dis­tinct iden­tity and granted im­punity to se­cu­rity forces to un­leash ter­ror on dis­sent­ing peo­ple.’

Match­ing and coun­ter­ing the ef­forts of the gov­ern­ment, while the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment will hold state-level Re­pub­lic Day func­tions in Hoshi­a­pur and other cities and towns of Pun­jab, the rev­o­lu­tion­ary Sikh body -Dal Khalsa will hold marches in three cities to build a crescendo in favour of the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.

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Terming Jan­u­ary 26 as a black day for the Sikh na­tion, the party lead­ers re­it­er­ated that, “Sikhs of Pun­jab are peace­fully and de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally strug­gling to get this right but the hawk­ish In­dian state por­trays our de­mand as sep­a­ratist and clas­si­fies it as il­le­gal and parochial.”

18 Jan­u­ary 2019, Am­rit­sar, WSN News Desk