In the clos­ing stages of the G20, In­dia re­it­er­ated its stand for ex­pan­sion of the United Na­tions Se­cu­rity Coun­cil and also sought sup­port for be­com­ing a Per­ma­nent Mem­ber of the body, which wields tremen­dous pow­ers in the gov­er­nance of the UN and has an im­pact on world af­fairs. Sikh body Dal Khalsa, through a press state­ment, warned the five UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil mem­bers from ac­cept­ing In­dian claims, say­ing, “In­dia has a poor hu­man rights record and its treat­ment of its peo­ples leaves much to be de­sired.” WSN re­ports.

DAL KHALSA, MAIN­TAIN­ING ITS FIRM SIKH STANCE on in­ter­na­tional af­fairs, has urged the five UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil per­ma­nent mem­bers (US, UK, France, China, Rus­sia) “not to get car­ried away by In­dian claims for seek­ing per­ma­nent mem­ber­ship as In­dia is not ready to have a place at that au­gust level.”

“We are deeply con­cerned by the sup­port of­fered by the United States and France in this as­pect and we ap­peal to all those who mat­ter in­ter­na­tion­ally, to de­feat this move,” said Dal Khalsa leader Kan­war Pal Singh.

“Un­der no cir­cum­stances should In­dia get a foothold in the UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil. As it is, In­dia cares lit­tle for the rights of the peo­ple and we fear that its treat­ment will take a dive for the worse. More than ever be­fore, In­dia is rac­ing to­wards a ma­jori­tar­ian state with fas­cist ten­den­cies and is sup­press­ing dis­sent and con­cerns of all sec­tions of peo­ples.”

The in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity, the United Na­tions, and the per­ma­nent mem­bers must con­sider In­di­a’s re­quest, only af­ter In­dia signs UN con­ven­tions and treaties, rat­i­fies them, cor­rects its hu­man rights record, re­peals all dra­con­ian laws from its statute, and re­solves con­flicts with its mi­nori­ties and na­tion­al­i­ties as per their right­ful as­pi­ra­tions. Till then, all such pleas must be out­rightly re­jected.

“Un­der no cir­cum­stances should In­dia get a foothold in the UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil. As it is, In­dia cares lit­tle for the rights of the peo­ple and we fear that its treat­ment will take a dive for the worse. More than ever be­fore, In­dia is rac­ing to­wards a ma­jori­tar­ian state with fas­cist ten­den­cies and is sup­press­ing dis­sent and con­cerns of all sec­tions of peo­ples.”

“With the US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden tak­ing up the cause of re­spect for hu­man rights and de­mo­c­ra­tic processes with his In­dian coun­ter­part Naren­dra Modi, our stand has been vin­di­cated,” said Kan­war Pal Singh.
“We have been cry­ing hoarse that all is not well in In­dia as far as hu­man rights, es­pe­cially mi­nor­ity rights are con­cerned.”

Dal Khalsa is aghast that the In­dian au­thor­i­ties did not al­low the in­ter­na­tional me­dia, es­pe­cially the US me­dia, to quiz the US Pres­i­dent and Naren­dra Modi, af­ter their bi­lat­eral talks and were packed into a van and taken away from the venue. This is clearly un­de­mo­c­ra­tic and a huge diplo­matic lapse that be­speaks the free­dom of the press in In­dia.
“It, there­fore, comes as no sur­prise that the US Pres­i­dent chose to speak in Viet­nam and not in In­dia.”

Thank you Canada for con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide space for de­mo­c­ra­tic protests and free­dom of speech.

Prais­ing the state­ment of Cana­dian PM Justin Trudeau in which he re-em­pha­sized that free­dom to hold protest, speech, and ex­pres­sion was part of the de­mo­c­ra­tic func­tion­ing and will be main­tained at all cost. The Dal Khalsa leader agreed with Trudeau that vi­o­lence and ha­tred should not be en­cour­aged.

Thank you USA for vin­di­cat­ing our stand by tak­ing up the mat­ter of hu­man rights in In­dia.

“We are grate­ful to gov­ern­ments in the West es­pe­cially Canada that have right­fully given de­mo­c­ra­tic space and op­por­tu­nity to Sikh ac­tivists to speak for their com­mu­ni­ty’s right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion in a de­mo­c­ra­tic man­ner.”

Join­ing is­sue with the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia for brand­ing Sikhs and Khal­is­ta­nis in par­tic­u­lar as threats to peace in the world, the Dal Khalsa said New Delhi has be­come a ha­bit­ual com­plainant.

Dal Khalsa leader Kan­war Pal Singh said, “Had there been no peace­ful strug­gle for self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, the In­dian es­tab­lish­ment would not have had to plead be­fore the US, UK, Canada, and Aus­tralia to cur­tain ac­tiv­i­ties of Khal­is­tani ac­tivists on their re­spec­tive soils and such an is­sue would not have been on top of the agenda be­tween the coun­tries.”