Dal Khalsa reaches out to the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity, urg­ing at­ten­tion to hu­man rights abuses in Pun­jab. High­light­ing mis­use of dra­con­ian laws, de­ten­tions, so­cial me­dia cen­sor­ship, and state in­ter­fer­ence, they ad­vo­cate for jus­tice and pro­tec­tion of Sikh rights. A WSN Re­port.

IN A BID TO RAISE AWARE­NESS ABOUT what they term the “lin­ger­ing con­flict” be­tween Pun­jab and New Delhi, the pro-Sikh free­dom or­ga­ni­za­tion Dal Khalsa has reached out to the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity, in­clud­ing se­nior US diplo­mats. The group has high­lighted sev­eral press­ing is­sues, such as the mis­use of dra­con­ian laws on Sikh po­lit­i­cal dis­si­dents, de­ten­tions of Sikh ac­tivists un­der the Un­law­ful Ac­tiv­i­ties (Pre­ven­tion) Act (UAPA) and the Na­tional Se­cu­rity Act (NSA), and cen­sor­ship on so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

A com­mu­nique, in­tended for Un­der Sec­re­tary for Democ­racy and Hu­man Rights Ms. Uzra Zeya, was sent to Eric Garcetti, the US Am­bas­sador to In­dia.  Dal Khalsa has ap­plauded the United States’ com­mit­ment to en­gag­ing with civil so­ci­ety or­ga­ni­za­tions and ad­dress­ing cru­cial mat­ters, in­clud­ing free speech and the mar­gin­al­iza­tion of re­li­gious and eth­nic mi­nori­ties.

The Dal Khalsa let­ter by se­nior leader Kan­war Pal Singh has urged Ms. Uzra Zeya to as­sess the ground sit­u­a­tion re­gard­ing hu­man rights abuses faced by var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties, na­tion­al­i­ties, and re­li­gious mi­nori­ties. The or­ga­ni­za­tion high­lights the wide­spread mis­use of dra­con­ian laws, par­tic­u­larly the UAPA and NSA, which have been em­ployed dis­pro­por­tion­ately to sup­press fun­da­men­tal rights and sti­fle dis­sent­ing voices in Pun­jab and other re­gions. Dis­turbingly, Sikh ac­tivists have been de­tained un­der these laws, some even be­ing held at Di­bru­garh jail, lo­cated 2500 kilo­me­tres away from their home­land.

The Dal Khalsa let­ter also draws at­ten­tion to the is­sue of Sikh po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, crit­i­ciz­ing the In­dian state for adopt­ing un­equal norms and dou­ble stan­dards in their treat­ment. Fur­ther­more, the ris­ing trend of so­cial me­dia cen­sor­ship, in­clud­ing the dis­abling of Twit­ter and Face­book ac­counts be­long­ing to po­lit­i­cal dis­si­dents and dis­senters, is high­lighted as a cause for con­cern.

The let­ter also draws at­ten­tion to the is­sue of Sikh po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, crit­i­ciz­ing the In­dian state for adopt­ing un­equal norms and dou­ble stan­dards in their treat­ment. Kan­war Pal Singh says, “The ris­ing trend of so­cial me­dia cen­sor­ship, in­clud­ing the dis­abling of Twit­ter and Face­book ac­counts be­long­ing to po­lit­i­cal dis­si­dents and dis­senters, is a se­ri­ous cause for con­cern.”

The in­ter­fer­ence of the state in re­li­gious af­fairs is an­other alarm­ing is­sue, with ref­er­ence to the Pun­jab As­sem­bly rec­om­mend­ing amend­ments to the Gur­d­wara Act and the cen­tral gov­ern­men­t’s push for a Uni­form Civil Code. State-spon­sored me­dia plat­forms have in­ten­si­fied pro­pa­ganda aimed at de­fam­ing and por­tray­ing Sikhs and other mi­nori­ties neg­a­tively, lead­ing to a squeez­ing of the de­mo­c­ra­tic space en­ti­tled to Sikhs and other mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. These ac­tions also mis­lead the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity re­gard­ing the chal­lenges faced by mi­nori­ties in In­dia.

Dal Khal­sa’s ef­forts to shed light on these crit­i­cal is­sues re­flect their com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing Sikh rights and ad­vo­cat­ing for jus­tice. As the global com­mu­nity ob­serves their plea, the hope for pos­i­tive change and the pro­tec­tion of hu­man rights in In­dia re­mains a pri­or­ity.