The Sec­re­tary of Po­lit­i­cal Af­fairs of the pro-Sikh body Dal Khalsa -Kan­war Pal Singh has shared a com­mu­nique sent to heads of the mis­sions in New Delhi of the G20 par­tic­i­pants, shar­ing a re­gional per­spec­tive on the eco­nomic, es­pe­cially trade man­date of this group of coun­tries as well as the Sikh per­spec­tive on what ac­tu­ally such groups should be fo­cussing on.

While the po­si­tion about the G20 side sum­mit in Am­rit­sar is still in the dol­drums and the un­cer­tainty per­sists with the Union, State of Pun­jab lead­er­ship, and the bu­reau­cracy not let­ting away any­thing con­crete on the sub­ject, this is a sig­nif­i­cant step by the Dal Khalsa. The World Sikh News shares the con­tent of this Open Let­ter-style mis­sive writ­ten with the hope that coun­tries will look into this sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive and lis­ten to the litany of the Sikh peo­ple.

Hon’ble Am­bas­sador and Plenipo­ten­tiary
Greet­ings from the Pun­jab! A Warm Wel­come to Am­rit­sar!

As the del­e­gates rep­re­sent­ing your coun­try are set to visit Am­rit­sar from 15-17 March as part of the side sum­mit of G-20, Dal Khalsa takes this op­por­tu­nity to pre­sent an overview of the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal life of the re­gion and its peo­ple from the Sikh per­spec­tive.

As you may be aware, ir­re­spec­tive of the elec­toral de­vel­op­ments in the state, the peo­ple of Pun­jab are en­gaged in a strug­gle for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and they look to­wards the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity with the hope to en­able the ful­fill­ment of their right­ful as­pi­ra­tions.

When del­e­gates from your coun­try ar­rive in Am­rit­sar and visit the Dar­bar Sahib, pop­u­larly known as the Golden Tem­ple, the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee that man­ages the his­toric Sikh shrines in Pun­jab, will surely ex­tend a warm wel­come on be­half of the Sikh com­mu­nity.

The Dar­bar Sahib and the Akal Takht Sahib in its precincts is a state within a state -this unique theo-po­lit­i­cal sta­tus is un­par­al­leled and is a pointer to the unique and dis­tinct iden­tity of the Sikhs, whose home­land is the Pun­jab.

We also take this op­por­tu­nity to pre­sent our un­der­stand­ing of the work­ing of the Group of Twenty -G20, in the con­text of the po­lit­i­cal dy­nam­ics of the re­gion and how In­dia, with its pres­i­dency of the G-20 this year, must view and work for the avowed aim of the body “to re­solve the global eco­nomic cri­sis.”

From a trade per­spec­tive, the Pun­jab has been a tra­di­tional gate­way to Cen­tral Asia, with Am­rit­sar as the dry port of the re­gion. This has a his­tor­i­cal an­gle too. The Sikh Gu­rus con­structed the Dar­bar Sahib and other his­tor­i­cal re­li­gious shrines -Gur­d­waras in a way that these be­came re­li­gious, so­cial, eco­nomic, cul­tural and po­lit­i­cal cen­ters of ac­tiv­ity.

From a trade per­spec­tive, the Pun­jab has been a tra­di­tional gate­way to Cen­tral Asia, with Am­rit­sar as the dry port of the re­gion. This has a his­tor­i­cal an­gle too. The Sikh Gu­rus con­structed the Dar­bar Sahib and other his­tor­i­cal re­li­gious shrines -Gur­d­waras in a way that these be­came re­li­gious, so­cial, eco­nomic, cul­tural and po­lit­i­cal cen­ters of ac­tiv­ity.

We are well aware that the dis­cus­sions dur­ing the G-20 sum­mit will fo­cus on trade, en­ergy, cli­mate change, ed­u­ca­tion, health, se­cu­rity and eco­nomic is­sues amongst the 19 mem­ber coun­tries and the Eu­ro­pean Union. The point that we seek to em­pha­size is that like G-7, even the G-20, es­pe­cially with its ro­ta­tional pres­i­dency, has not been able to delve into the root causes of dis­con­ti­nu­ity and hin­drances to trade and com­merce be­tween mem­ber coun­tries.

While many coun­tries, in­clud­ing In­dia, em­pha­size a con­ducive en­vi­ron­ment for eco­nomic progress, it is our per­spec­tive that most of the coun­tries in­clud­ing In­dia have failed to see that while peace and progress go hand in hand, peace fol­lows jus­tice and eq­uity.

The city of Am­rit­sar has been the tra­di­tional ful­crum of Sikh re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal ac­tiv­ity. In­dia has never re­spected this po­si­tion. Since the last seven decades and more, In­dia has not only used its mil­i­tary bul­wark to at­tack the Dar­bar Sahib and the Akal Takht Sahib but has used its full might to un­der­mine and dam­age its re­li­gious, po­lit­i­cal and re­gional sig­nif­i­cance, within the com­mu­nity and to the world at large.

It is our con­sid­ered view that ef­forts to make the G-20 jam­boree suc­ceed will crash at the al­tar of re­spect for hu­man rights. The mil­lions that the state gov­ern­ment of Pun­jab and the Union gov­ern­ment of In­dia will spend for the main Sum­mit and the few hun­dred side-sum­mits like the one in Am­rit­sar shall not bear fruit as it is clearly no more than a slick ex­er­cise to in­crease op­tics for the cel­e­bra­tion of the tem­po­rary pres­i­dency of In­dia.

The whole In­dian game is a larger de­sign to en­hance its im­age in the face of the stark re­al­i­ties por­trayed in var­i­ous in­dices by In­dian and in­ter­na­tional bod­ies.

In­dia has a lot to an­swer. Tor­ture is ram­pant. Jail, not bail is the norm. In­dia has un­equal norms and dif­fer­ent sets of rules for po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Sikh po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers con­tinue to lan­guish in pris­ons even af­ter the com­ple­tion of their sen­tence. Dis­sent is equated with ter­ror­ism. Jour­nal­ists, stu­dents, and hu­man rights de­fend­ers are in pre­ven­tive de­ten­tions.

In­dia has a lot to an­swer. Tor­ture is ram­pant. Jail, not bail is the norm. In­dia has un­equal norms and dif­fer­ent sets of rules for po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Sikh po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers con­tinue to lan­guish in pris­ons even af­ter the com­ple­tion of their sen­tence. Dis­sent is equated with ter­ror­ism. Jour­nal­ists, stu­dents, and hu­man rights de­fend­ers are in pre­ven­tive de­ten­tions.

Doc­u­men­taries, like the BBC doc­u­men­tary crit­i­cal of the role of Naren­dra Modi dur­ing the Gu­jarat mas­sacre in 2002, are banned. The In­dian Gov­ern­ment en­gi­neered In­come Tax raids on BBC of­fices in vengeance. Jus­tice for na­tion­al­i­ties, in­dige­nous peo­ples, and mi­nori­ties is elu­sive. A cli­mate of hate and fear has laid an over­ar­ch­ing blan­ket on peo­ple’s lives. In 2022, In­dia topped the list of coun­tries that or­dered in­ter­net shut­downs. The pre­sent-day right-wing Hin­dutva gov­ern­men­t’s march to­wards a Hindu In­dia is pal­pa­ble.

From Kash­mir to Na­ga­land, from Pun­jab to Tamil Nadu, In­dia is sys­tem­at­i­cally tram­pling the de­mo­c­ra­tic rights of the peo­ple us­ing the heavy might of the po­lice, para-mil­i­tary, and the In­dian Armed Forces. The threat of ar­rest un­der ar­chaic and dra­con­ian laws is real as many po­lit­i­cal ac­tivists con­tinue to be be­hind bars. Zero tol­er­ance for dis­sent has ren­dered Kash­mir with­out a voice. The Modi dis­pen­sa­tion is re­fus­ing to im­ple­ment the Naga peace ac­cord signed by the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia with the Na­tional So­cial­ist Coun­cil of Na­ga­land (NSCN) on 3 Au­gust 2015.

The loot of nat­ural re­sources of the State of Pun­jab goes on un­mit­i­gated. In a brazen man­ner, the Union gov­ern­men­t’s ap­pointed Gov­er­nor of Pun­jab -Ban­war­i­lal Puro­hit has threat­ened phys­i­cal vi­o­lence against voices of dis­sent and those seek­ing the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. Big Brother in Delhi is snoop­ing over so­cial me­dia, ban­ning so­cial me­dia groups and in­di­vid­u­als at the drop of a hat. Us­ing the na­tion­al­is­tic me­dia, a new nar­ra­tive of vengeance against the Sikhs is be­ing floated. All ques­tions re­lat­ing to the rights of peo­ple are brushed un­der the car­pet in the name of unity and ter­ri­to­r­ial in­tegrity of the coun­try. Un­mis­tak­ably, the peo­ple of Pun­jab are at the re­ceiv­ing end of all of this.

Dal Khalsa be­lieves that there is a need for re­al­iza­tion within G-20 coun­tries as to how dis­re­spect for de­mo­c­ra­tic norms and hu­man rights is a stum­bling block to progress.

Dal Khalsa be­lieves that there is a need for re­al­iza­tion within G-20 coun­tries as to how dis­re­spect for de­mo­c­ra­tic norms and hu­man rights is a stum­bling block to progress.

May all peo­ple en­joy their civil, eco­nomic, so­cial, and po­lit­i­cal rights with­out fear or favour. While in Am­rit­sar, when rep­re­sen­ta­tives of your coun­try will visit the Golden Tem­ple, ask them to take a mo­ment to pon­der over this it­er­a­tion.

We would love to meet the del­e­gates of your coun­try when they are in Am­rit­sar.

Yours truly

Kan­war Pal Singh
Sec­re­tary, Po­lit­i­cal Af­fairs
Dal Khalsa