This year, we cel­e­brate Hu­man Rights Day with In­dia on its knees. For the last many years and decades, we have been pushed to the wall. Every In­ter­na­tional Hu­man Rights Day hereto­fore has been a day of prayer and hope -a hope that In­dia will re­spect its com­mit­ments to ho­n­our the Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights and a prayer to the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity seek­ing its in­ter­ven­tion in ar­eas of vi­o­lence by the In­dian state -from Pun­jab to Kash­mir to the North-east.

THE IN­TER­NA­TIONAL COM­MU­NITY HAS FI­NALLY COME OUT OF ITS CO­COON ad­mon­ish In­dia and its way­ward ways. Prime Min­is­ters, leg­is­la­tors, in­ter­na­tional me­dia et al have put In­dia to so much shame that even the In­dian Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs has run out of the text for dé­marches.

In the last two weeks, In­dia has not only vi­o­lated the UN De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights but also the 2018 UN De­c­la­ra­tion on the Rights of Peas­ants, to which In­dia is also a sig­na­tory. Though the spokesper­son of the United Na­tions sec­re­tary-gen­eral has spo­ken, it was in the fit­ness of things that the UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­eral, An­to­nio Guter­res, should have made an un­equiv­o­cal state­ment to­day ask­ing In­dia to stop re­pres­sion on farm­ers seek­ing their rights. Even the chair­per­son of the UN Hu­man Rights Com­mit­tee’s in­ter­ven­tion is awaited.

To­day, on 10 De­cem­ber 2020, the whole of Pun­jab, the whole transna­tional Sikh com­mu­nity across the world, the con­sci­en­tious peo­ple of In­dia are not just ob­serv­ing the World Hu­man Rights Day in a sym­bolic man­ner, but are vir­tu­ally cel­e­brat­ing it -cel­e­brat­ing with a taste of vic­tory to have brought the In­dian state on its knees. The unity of thought, in­ten­tion and pur­pose demon­strated on the streets out­side Delhi has smashed the pride of the rul­ing troika of the po­lit­i­cal brigade, the cor­po­rate mafia and a pli­ant me­dia.

The unity of thought, in­ten­tion and pur­pose demon­strated on the streets out­side Delhi has smashed the pride of the rul­ing troika of the po­lit­i­cal brigade, the cor­po­rate mafia and a pli­ant me­dia.

To­day’s Hu­man Rights Day is his­toric in Pun­jab and In­dia. In one voice, Pun­jab is to­day re­it­er­at­ing its com­mit­ment to the Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights. The im­ages of ca­ma­raderie, friend­ship, love, af­fec­tion amongst peo­ples on the bor­ders of Delhi are pic­tures which will make the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity proud.

This Hu­man Rights Day, for the peo­ple of Pun­jab, the be­lea­guered Sikh na­tion, hereto­fore, ob­serv­ing the Hu­man Rights Day with a litany of griev­ances, hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions and sup­pres­sion of Sikh rights, is a day with a dif­fer­ence. To­day, with the num­ber of pro­tes­tors swelling into mil­lions, with a quar­ter of the Pun­jab pop­u­la­tion, a huge cross-sec­tion of the peo­ple of Haryana, Ra­jasthan and Ut­tar Pradesh hav­ing laid the siege of Delhi, has forced for the first time in many years and decades into lis­ten­ing to the de­mands of the peo­ple.

Every Pun­jabi -men, women and chil­dren, the rich and the poor and those in be­tween, the ur­ban and the rural, the ed­u­cated, the il­lit­er­ate and those less ed­u­cated, the de­vout and the athe­ists and those sway­ing be­tween the two, the farmer and the con­sumer, the man­u­fac­turer and the dis­trib­u­tor, the uni­ver­sity teacher, the army per­son, the sports­peo­ple, the singers, the Pun­jabi he­roes and hero­ines, stu­dents and teach­ers, lawyers and civil lib­er­tar­i­ans, are all out un­der the cold win­ter sky, en­joy­ing Pun­jabi and Haryanvi hos­pi­tal­ity, fra­ter­nity and love.

This year’s UN Hu­man Rights’ call to ac­tion is “Stand Up for Hu­man rights” and UN aimed to en­gage the gen­eral pub­lic, our part­ners and the UN fam­ily to bol­ster trans­for­ma­tive ac­tion and show­case prac­ti­cal and in­spi­ra­tional ex­am­ples that can con­tribute to re­cov­er­ing bet­ter and fos­ter­ing more re­silient and just so­ci­eties. The Farm­ers Mor­cha is just that.

We know that we have a long way to go. There are many still lan­guish­ing in pris­ons of Mum­bai, Pune, Delhi, Pun­jab, Kash­mir and the North East. There are many young ac­tivists whose civil and po­lit­i­cal rights have been sup­pressed and they con­tinue to be be­hind bars.

The peo­ple of Pun­jab have shown the way and stood up. 10 De­cem­ber 2020 Hu­man Rights Day, is un­doubt­edly ded­i­cated to the farm­ers of In­dia.