The eu­pho­ria of In­dian Free­dom Day was to be seen from the ram­parts of the Red Fort to the cap­i­tals of var­i­ous states, but dis­sent­ing Sikh lead­ers of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar), Dal Khalsa, Stu­dents For So­ci­ety and other bod­ies held protest sit-ins, demon­stra­tions across fif­teen dis­tricts of the state of Pun­jab, hold­ing black flags, ban­ners and plac­ards up­hold­ing the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion of the peo­ple of Pun­jab and protest­ing In­dian re­pres­sive moves in Kash­mir. 

WITHOUT MINC­ING WORDS or beat­ing around the bush, in a forth­right and de­ter­mined man­ner, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of var­i­ous Sikh po­lit­i­cal bod­ies, stu­dent or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­di­vid­ual ac­tivists and vol­un­teers, held the flag of dis­sent  high, ap­peal­ing to the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity to give up their stoic si­lence and im­me­di­ately in­ter­vene to pro­tect hu­man rights in In­dia and ac­knowl­edge in prac­tice the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion of the peo­ple of Pun­jab and of Kash­mir.

Lead­ing the protests in Am­rit­sar, Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and Kan­warpal Singh rep­re­sented the fact that all strug­gling peo­ples have le­git­i­mate rights and in ac­cor­dance with in­ter­na­tional treaties and con­ven­tions, de­mo­c­ra­tic na­tions are duty-bound to pro­tect such rights -not only in their re­spec­tive coun­tries and re­gions where they have strate­gic geopo­lit­i­cal or bi­lat­eral in­ter­ests but in all parts of the world.

Stu­dent body from the Pan­jab Uni­ver­sity, with a rank and file across the state -the Stu­dents for So­ci­ety, was sig­nif­i­cantly pre­sent with vol­un­teers, to lend sup­port to the Pan­thic bod­ies, who had come to­gether pub­licly af­ter a long time. SFS lead­ers from Pan­jab Uni­ver­sity, Chandi­garh, were in the fore­front protest­ing against in­jus­tices, dis­crim­i­na­tion, de­nial of rights and ab­ro­ga­tion of Ar­ti­cle 370 and the con­ver­sion of the whole of Kash­mir into a con­cen­tra­tion camp. SFS leader Kanupriya de­nounced the use of the In­dian army to sub­ju­gate all dis­sent­ing peo­ples and rued the fact that us­ing the army against civil­ians has be­come a per­ma­nent fea­ture with the pre­sent In­dian gov­ern­ment.

Ar­tic­u­lat­ing the gen­e­sis of the Pun­jab prob­lem, Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann, Pres­i­dent of SAD (Am­rit­sar) said “Since 1947, when­ever we have as­serted our rights, we have faced hard­ships, de­ten­tions and bul­lets. Sikhs will do well not to for­get this mal­treat­ment of the gov­ern­ment.  While we are sui-generis peo­ples, the be­trayal of com­mit­ments and promises by In­dian lead­ers made in 1947 and the cat­a­strophic events of 1984, are the root cause of the pre­sent Sikh anger. Var­i­ous Sikh ap­pointees in high In­dian ranks and po­si­tions over the decades were only a ploy to de­ceive naive Sikhs, In­di­ans and mar­ket-dri­ven west­ern coun­tries.

Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh re­it­er­ated that while Pak­istan and In­dia were cel­e­brat­ing their 72nd In­de­pen­dence Day with great fer­vour and na­tion­al­is­tic gusto, the third party to the di­vi­sion of the sub-con­ti­nent in 1947 -the Sikhs, grossly re­gret that “we missed the bus.”  “Nev­er­the­less, the de­sire for free­dom is alive and kick­ing,” he added.

Fire­brand ac­tivist and leader Ms Kanupriya roared in her speech that, “On the en­tire po­lit­i­cal spec­trum, from left to right, we are suf­fer­ing from an over­dose of ul­tra-pa­tri­o­tism. Presently, in In­dia, dis­sen­sion is sedi­tion. To­day marks the day of state vi­o­lence against peo­ple of var­i­ous lin­guis­tic and re­li­gious mi­nori­ties. We op­pose the very na­ture of the In­dian state that has al­ways been Hin­dutva fas­cist.”

“Crack­down and ar­rest of so many pro­test­ers in Tarn Taran in the last 24 hours, give us a clear in­di­ca­tion of the re­pres­sive sys­tem we are liv­ing in, she added.

Of the 22 dis­tricts in the state of Pun­jab, protest meets were held by these groups, in all the ma­jor 15 dis­tricts of the state, call­ing 15 Au­gust as Black Day. Lead­ers of the var­i­ous pro-Sikh free­dom or­gan­i­sa­tions and oth­ers were spread out in all dis­tricts, co­or­di­nat­ing their joint ef­forts en­sur­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of party ranks and oth­ers.

In Ja­land­har, Dal Khalsa Pres­i­dent and lawyer -Harpal Singh Cheema led more than 400 ac­tivists to a spir­ited protest against the anti-democ­racy poli­cies of In­dia and the whole­sale den­i­gra­tion of the rule of law in the coun­try.

Car­ry­ing huge ban­ners and plac­ards, the mostly young demon­stra­tors shouted slo­gans and spoke to cross-sec­tions of the me­dia of how the last three decades have wit­nessed tu­mul­tuous times of de­nial, tor­ment, tor­ture, may­hem, van­dal­ism and death.

Ex­press­ing sol­i­dar­ity with the peo­ple of Kash­mir, still reel­ing un­der the might of the In­dian armed forces, a plac­ard read, “Our pain is same, our en­emy is same”.

Lead­ers ex­pressed sol­i­dar­ity with the Kash­miri peo­ple and cat­e­gor­i­cally stated in speeches and slo­gans that re­vok­ing Ar­ti­cle 370 or in­car­cer­at­ing Kash­miris in their own homes for days on end will not kill the as­pi­ra­tions of free­dom of the Kash­miri peo­ple.

Mock­ing the gov­ern­ment on its lat­est move to amend the Un­law­ful Ac­tiv­i­ties Pre­ven­tion Act -UAPA, by as­sum­ing pow­ers to la­bel any in­di­vid­ual as a ter­ror­ist with­out due process of law, scores of lead­ers, ac­tivists and marchers were hold­ing plac­ards read­ing, “I AM A TER­ROR­IST” and “WE ARE TER­ROR­ISTS”.

Cov­er­ing the plethora of is­sues that con­front the badly tor­tured and mauled Sikh psy­che and the peo­ple of Pun­jab, pro­tes­tors were rais­ing con­cerns re­gard­ing the side-track­ing of the Bar­gari sac­ri­lege is­sue, the dra­con­ian amend­ments to the UAPA, the grad­ual politi­ci­sa­tion and em­pow­er­ment of the Na­tional In­ves­ti­ga­tion Agency -NIA with un­bri­dled pow­ers to de­tain and in­ter­ro­gate, the con­vo­luted route taken by the gov­ern­ment to sub­vert the wa­ters is­sue and force the con­struc­tion of the Sut­lej Ya­muna Link -SYL canal, re­fusal of the In­dian ju­di­ciary and po­lit­i­cal pow­ers to re­lease Sikh de­tenues who have long com­pleted their terms of im­pris­on­ment, fail­ure to pros­e­cute Sirsa Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for his com­plic­ity in sac­ri­lege cases as well as mas­ter-mind­ing of the Maur Bomb Blast case and the in­abil­ity of the pre­sent Pun­jab gov­ern­ment to im­pli­cate and ar­rest for­mer Pun­jab po­lice chief Sumedh Singh Saini for his in­volve­ment in the Be­hbal Kalan in­dis­crim­i­nate fir­ing on in­no­cent pro­tes­tors, killing two pro­tes­tors and in­jur­ing scores of oth­ers.

Speak­ing to WSN, a young par­tic­i­pant of the protest in Am­rit­sar said, “It is time to wake up to the re­al­ity which is hit­ting hard in the face.”