As the Mi­nori­ties & Na­tion­al­i­ties Sum­mit -M&N 20, jointly or­gan­ised by Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) and Dal Khalsa, was not al­lowed to hap­pen with the au­thor­i­ties shut­ting down the Con­sti­tu­tion Club venue, po­lit­i­cal body Dal Khalsa has taken up the is­sue through a mis­sive to the G20 group of na­tions, with spe­cial ref­er­ence to Canada and the United King­dom, urg­ing them to lis­ten to the view­point and con­cerns of mi­nori­ties, re­gional iden­ti­ties and na­tion­al­i­ties, sub­ju­gated in In­dia and not heed to the anti-mi­nor­ity ma­jori­tar­ian and au­to­cratic stance of the Naren­dra Modi gov­ern­ment. WSN re­ports.

Address­ing a press meet in Am­rit­sar to­day, Dal Khalsa ap­prised that they had writ­ten to G20 coun­tries to un­der­stand and re­spect the chal­lenges and con­cerns of com­mu­ni­ties, re­gional iden­ti­ties and na­tion­al­i­ties that are be­ing sup­pressed and threat­ened by Bharat -the host coun­try of the G20 sum­mit.

“We be­lieve that a com­pre­hen­sive and truth­ful un­der­stand­ing of a na­tion’s so­cial fab­ric is es­sen­tial for diplo­matic in­ter­ac­tions, es­pe­cially in the con­text of in­ter­na­tional gath­er­ings such as the G20 Sum­mit,” said Kan­war Pal Singh in a let­ter ad­dressed to for­eign diplo­mats.

Tak­ing no­tice of Mod­i’s call to G20 coun­tries seek­ing “joint ef­forts to strengthen the ter­ri­to­r­ial in­tegrity of all coun­tries,” Dal Khalsa leader Kan­war Pal Singh said, “This is a nega­tion of the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and all G20 coun­tries should not be car­ried away by this rhetoric, rather they should by­pass this dik­tat of the leader of the host na­tion.”

Modi talks of the im­per­a­tive to ad­here fully to in­ter­na­tional laws. How about Bharat mak­ing a be­gin­ing by fully re­spect­ing the pro­vi­sions of UN De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights, in­clud­ing the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion?

Tak­ing a jibe at Mod­i’s state­ment that “it is im­per­a­tive to ad­here fully to in­ter­na­tional laws,” the leader of Dal Khalsa re­marked, “Let Bharat make a be­gin­ning of re­spect­ing in­ter­na­tional law by ac­cept­ing the pro­vi­sions of the UN De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights cat­e­gor­i­cally, which states, “All peo­ples have the right of self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. By virtue of that right they freely de­ter­mine their po­lit­i­cal sta­tus and freely pur­sue their eco­nomic, so­cial and cul­tural de­vel­op­ment.”

“There is no bar­rier, no hin­drance, and no ifs and buts. New na­tions are born only when the pow­ers that be dis­hon­our the rights of the peo­ple within their ter­ri­to­ries and sub­vert their le­git­i­mate rights.”

“The Dal Khalsa com­mu­nique has sought the ac­tive in­ter­ven­tion of the G20 coun­tries to play a se­ri­ous role in the res­o­lu­tion of po­lit­i­cal con­flicts, re­lease of all po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers from Kash­mir to Delhi to cen­tral In­dia, to end the State’s in­ter­fer­ence in re­li­gious af­fairs of mi­nor­ity com­mu­ni­ties, up­hold­ing of de­mo­c­ra­tic right to dis­sent, right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and im­me­di­ate stop­page of mis­use of NIA and dra­con­ian laws like NSA, UAPA.”

Talk­ing to the me­dia, Kan­war Pal Singh said, “Our let­ter to the diplo­matic com­mu­nity in Delhi is our di­rect re­sponse to the can­cel­la­tion of the M&N 20 Sum­mit whose only aim was to peace­fully con­vene in Delhi and pro­vide a plat­form for mi­nor­ity and na­tion­al­ity groups in In­dia to dis­cuss and ex­press their con­cerns, rang­ing from so­cial jus­tice to re­li­gious free­doms, hu­man rights and po­lit­i­cal rights to eco­nomic equal­ity for one and all.

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Un­de­mo­c­ra­tic Bharat scut­tles Mi­nori­ties and Na­tion­al­i­ties Sum­mit

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The Dal Khalsa com­mu­nique, sent through email, sought the ac­tive in­ter­ven­tion of the G20 coun­tries to play a se­ri­ous role in the res­o­lu­tion of po­lit­i­cal con­flicts, re­lease of all po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers from Kash­mir to Delhi to cen­tral In­dia, to end the State’s in­ter­fer­ence in re­li­gious af­fairs of mi­nor­ity com­mu­ni­ties, up­hold­ing of de­mo­c­ra­tic right to dis­sent, right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and im­me­di­ate stop­page of mis­use of NIA and dra­con­ian laws like NSA, UAPA.

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M & N 20 to pre­cede G 20 in Delhi to pre­sent al­ter­na­tive per­spec­tive

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Dal Khalsa thanked 70 British Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment for urg­ing their Prime Min­is­ter Rishi Sunak to take up the is­sue of a po­lit­i­cal pris­oner Jag­tar Singh Jo­hal, in­car­cer­ated in In­dian prison for the last five years, with In­dian Prime Min­ster, dur­ing his up­com­ing visit to Delhi for the G20 sum­mit.

“Will Prime Min­is­ter of United King­dom -Rishi Sunak ho­n­our the ap­peal of 70 Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment of his coun­try who have asked him to take up the case of re­lease of British na­tional Jag­tar Singh Jo­hal, in prison in In­dia for more than 5 years?” 

“We will ea­gerly wait to see whether the British PM will ho­n­our the words of his coun­try’s MPs,” added Kan­war Pal Singh.

” We fully ap­pre­ci­ate Canada or­der­ing in­quiry into In­di­a’s in­ter­fer­ence in Cana­dian af­fairs but will Canada pro­vide de­tails to the Sikh world about progress in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the brazen day­light mur­der of a Sikh ac­tivist?”

Dal Khalsa wel­comed the re­cent Cana­dian gov­ern­men­t’s de­ci­sion of or­der­ing a pub­lic in­quiry into the in­ter­fer­ence of In­dia in Cana­dian af­fairs.

Party spokesper­son Paramjit Singh Mand told the me­dia that ac­tivists from Ma­nipur, vic­tims of Nuh vi­o­lence, Tamil and Kash­miri ac­tivists, a sit­ting MLA from Delhi As­sem­bly, the SGPC Pres­i­dent, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the All In­dia Mus­lim Per­sonal Law Board con­venor, Bud­dhist lead­ers from Ma­ha­rash­tra, Chris­t­ian lead­ers from Delhi and lead­ers of Dalit, Sched­uled Caste, Sched­uled Tribes and Adi­vasi or­ga­ni­za­tions were are all set to par­tic­i­pate in the M & N 20 Sum­mit, which was scut­tled by the In­dian gov­ern­ment.

“Whether it is In­dia or Bharat, it does not bother us.”

To a ques­tion on the nomen­cla­ture -In­dia ver­sus Bharat, Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Paramjit Singh Mand said “Sikhs should not be both­ered about it. It is their coun­try, let them de­cide which name they want to have.” “We are both­ered about our sov­er­eignty and our home­land,” he added.