34 years of injustice for victims of November 1984 has led to Sikh organisations seeking different methods of protest and justice. Dal Khalsa has sought United Nations intervention at its candle-light vigil in the memory of the victims of November 84 carnage, in Amritsar today, attended by spirited party activists and commoners in large numbers.

Marching through the crowded old walled city of Amritsar to the foreground of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, hundreds of men and women activists of Dal Khalsa, holding placards seeking UN intervention for justice, were joined by ordinary folk in the March for  Justice organised to mark 34 years of the anti-Sikh pogrom of November 84 carnage in Delhi and other parts of India.

Chanting slogans for UN intervention and justice for those who perished in the violence unleashed by Congress goons and lumpens in November 84, the leaders and activists held the Congress government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi responsible for the massacre.

“As November 1984 massacre marked a watershed in Indo-Sikh relations, the Dal Khalsa leader Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib said, “Sikhs will actively pursue the UN and other world powers, as our cup is now full of what India can do.”

The meaning of justice is not compensation but punishing the perpetrators and finding a peaceful resolution of the conflict that give rise to genocidal pogroms, like the one in Delhi in November 84.

The Dal Khalsa statement said, “the meaning of justice is not compensation but punishing the perpetrators and finding a peaceful resolution of the conflict that give rise to genocidal pogroms, like the one in Delhi in November 84.”

The vast gathering of the participants of the march clearly demonstrated that the Sikh community is no mood to forget the tragedy of November 1984 and all attempts by the government of India to place the Sikhs on a back foot on this issue have backfired.

Dal Khalsa president Harpal Singh Cheema, addressing the gathering at the culmination of the march told the attentive young listeners, “Today our concern is no longer whether India will do justice because it will not. Today, let’s announce shifting the battleground from New Delhi to Geneva. We will make last-ditch efforts and pursue the UN to order an international inquiry into the November 84 genocidal killings.”

Speaking to the media, spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh bluntly stated that, “The new UN Secretary General, Mr. António Guterres who visited Darbar Sahib recently has to wake up to reality that India -the land of Gandhi is a hate-filled, intolerant society with a political climate detrimental to a large cross section of society, especially regional identities, minorities and nationalities. If the UN can order an enquiry in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, surely it can do in India.”

From Canada to the US, provincial governments have acknowledged through resolutions the November 84 pogrom as genocide. We believe, it is now the turn of the UN not only to endorse this but to even go beyond this.

Harpal Singh Cheema, President Dal Khalsa

Party president Cheema was forthright, “From Canada to the US, provincial governments have acknowledged through resolutions the November 1984 pogrom as genocide. We believe, it is now the turn of the UN not only to endorse this but to even go beyond this.”

There were placards galore seeking UN intervention. A student from Guru Nanak Dev University, almost summing up the sentiment of the marchers said, “I wonder when the UN will listen to the Sikhs and break its deafening silence.”

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The battle between the impartiality of the United Nations and the larger than life image of India is on testing the tenacity of the Sikhs. Let’s see who wins and when!