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!