March­ing through the streets of Am­rit­sar, tra­vers­ing the dis­tance from their head of­fice Free­dom House to the precincts of Dar­bar Sahib, car­ry­ing torches and plac­ards, lead­ers, ac­tivists and mem­bers of the Dal Khalsa ob­served 1 No­vem­ber Pun­jab Day as a day of protest against the cur­rent and past deeds of the In­dian state to­wards Sikhs and Pun­jab.  Adding a new di­men­sion to the fight of the farm­ers of the state, Dal Khalsa de­manded the visa-free open­ing of the Indo-Pak bor­ders to fa­cil­i­tate trade ac­tiv­ity and peo­ple-to-peo­ple in­ter­ac­tion to re­duce ten­sion in the sub-con­ti­nent and carve the path of peace and progress.

COM­MEM­O­RAT­ING THE 55TH PUN­JAB DAY, DAL KHALSA HELD A SPIRIT-AWAK­EN­ING RALLY TO high­light var­i­ous con­tentious is­sues re­lat­ing to de­nial of rights of the peo­ple of Pun­jab, the po­lit­i­cal des­tiny of the peo­ple of Pun­jab and the cur­rently volatile is­sue of farm­ers’ dis­tress aris­ing out of the new farm laws framed by the Naren­dra Modi gov­ern­ment against which farm­ers all across the state are up in arms.

The march was also used as an oc­ca­sion to rem­i­nisce about those killed in the anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi and other parts of In­dia dur­ing the first week of No­vem­ber 1984. For­mer Dal Khalsa Pres­i­dent Har­cha­ran­jit Singh Dhami said, “To­day marks 36 years of the geno­ci­dal week and we re­it­er­ate that this will con­tinue to be ob­served for cen­turies to come to re­mind the world com­mu­nity and In­di­ans in par­tic­u­lar, how In­dia failed the Sikhs dur­ing that black week.”

The marchers -young and old, hold­ing huge ban­ners and plac­ards and shout­ing slo­gans, blamed the In­dian Union gov­ern­ment for loot­ing river wa­ters and other nat­ural re­sources of the state of Pun­jab. In a di­rect at­tack on cap­i­tal­ists, the gath­er­ing gave a call for a boy­cott of Re­liance and Adani goods and ser­vices.

“In­dia has an evil eye to­wards Pun­jab.”

Dal Khalsa Pol­icy State­ment is­sued on Pun­jab Day

The Dal Khalsa pol­icy state­ment, re­leased at the rally, reads, “In­dia has an evil eye to­wards Pun­jab. Who can ex­plain the dis­turb­ing state of af­fairs that Pun­jab is with­out its cap­i­tal city and with­out its own High Court? How can one for­get the in­jus­tice done by the pro­vi­sions of the Pun­jab Re­or­gan­i­sa­tion Act, 1966, which usurped pow­ers of Pun­jab and gave them to the Union gov­ern­ment and Pun­jab’s neigh­bour­ing states?”

Dal Khalsa pol­icy state­ment fur­ther states that “there is a vast dif­fer­ence be­tween the needs of In­dia and the in­ter­ests of Pun­jab. It is time for the farmer of Pun­jab to be less both­ered about the eu­phemistic tag of be­ing the bread-provider for In­dia and start wor­ry­ing about his own needs, those of his chil­dren and that of his state. This is not parochial­ism, but a prag­matic ap­proach to counter the anti-Pun­jab poli­cies of the Union of In­dia.”

Mak­ing a scathing at­tack on In­dia, the Dal Khalsa doc­u­ment says that In­dia has col­o­nized Pun­jab and is sub­ject­ing the state and its peo­ple dif­fer­ently. Sym­bolic recog­ni­tion of Pun­jab’s mar­tyrs and con­tri­bu­tion in the armed forces is noth­ing but a ploy to fool the Sikhs. Party spokesman Kan­war Pal Singh af­firmed, “Dal Khalsa stands for the sov­er­eignty of Pun­jab -we have the right to self-rule, which we shall gain through the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.”

Speak­ing to the ral­ly­ists, Dal Khalsa pres­i­dent Harpal Singh Cheema said, “We de­mand visa-free ac­cess and free trade across the Wa­gah bor­der so that Pun­jab farm­ers, man­u­fac­tur­ers and traders can mar­ket their pro­duce in the mar­kets of Cen­tral and West­ern Asia.”

“The ar­ro­gant and dic­ta­to­r­ial Naren­dra Modi gov­ern­ment is pro­mot­ing crony cap­i­tal­ism and is sound­ing the death-knell of the poor farm­ers, not only of Pun­jab but the rest of In­dia too. Un­ques­tion­ably, Pun­jab, as is its legacy, will fight back,” he added.

“Dal Khalsa stands for the sov­er­eignty of Pun­jab -we have the right to self-rule, which we shall gain through the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.”

Kan­war Pal Singh, Spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa

Naren­dra Mod­i’s gov­ern­ment is work­ing to­wards cen­tral­i­sa­tion of pow­ers and pol­icy. Dal Khalsa will fight this out, said party spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh.

“Our rights are non-ne­go­tiable. In­di­a’s fas­cist and im­pe­ri­al­ist ap­proach will not de­ter the peo­ple of Pun­jab from fight­ing for the pro­tec­tion of their le­git­i­mate rights,”