20th Anniversary of Historic 'Sarbat Khalsa'

[DKI]

20th Anniversary of Historic 'Sarbat Khalsa'

Sikh Independence remains National Goal

26 January 2006: Twenty years ago Sikhs held an historic Sarbat Khalsa (national gathering) and started to rebuild their supreme seat of Government, the Akal Takht Sahib in Amritsar, destroyed by the Indian Army during the infamous Operation Bluestar nearly two years earlier in which thousands of Sikhs were brutally massacred. Within days of the full withdrawal of the Indian Army from the Golden Temple Complex, more than 100,000 Sikhs had taken part in an extraordinary show of 'people power', not only to rebuild their sacred seat of power but their very destiny as a free Nation. It resolved unequivocally that the Sikh Nation would establish an independent sovereign Sikh state of Khalistan in accordance with their inalienable right of self determination as enshrined in international law.

Uniquely, the Sarbat Khalsa of 26th January 1986 has been able to demonstrate in modern times to the world at large that the Khalistan movement was a natural consequence of the unfulfilled collective aspirations of the Sikhs for a sovereign state in their historic homeland of Punjab. By 29 April, 1986 the Panthic Committee constituted by the Sarbat Khalsa was able to issue a 'Declaration of Khalistan' from the Golden Temple Complex.

This momentous decision represented a serious political defeat for the Indian state after its murderous army operations Bluestar and Woodrose aimed at annihilating the Sikhs as a Nation. This, the major political achievement of the Sikhs during the Punjab conflict, followed India's humiliation of losing both its political master, Indira Gandhi and Chief of Staff, General Vaidya who were assassinated in 1984 and 1985 respectively, for launching India's undeclared war on the Sikhs. The Sarbat Khalsa's resolutions, being the freely expressed wishes of the Sikh Nation, underlined the legitimacy of the Sikh freedom struggle in terms of both international law and any concept of justice. They left no room for doubting the Sikhs' absolute rejection of India's purported claims to the Sikh homeland (and natural resources) and of the imperialist imposed by New Delhi on it; the Sikhs had spoken on the very day the adoption of that 'Constitution' is annually marked by the Indian state.

The outcome of that Sarbat Khalsa also superceded the decade long Akali struggle to implement the Anandpur Sahib Resolution for regional autonomy and consigned the 1985 Rajiv-Longowal Accord to the dust-bin of history; so much so that neither the regional parties nor the Centre have been able to revive these or any other political initiatives since.

Having been politically out maneuvered the Indian state abandoned even the pretence of adherence to any norms of civilized conduct; basic human rights, including the right to life, were breached on a massive scale and as many as 250,000 Sikhs were killed in total, tens of thousands of those killings being 'hidden' by a (now exposed) systematic program of secret cremations. Today, India can still not afford to let bona fide international human rights organisations into the Punjab, for fear of them exposing the scale of its human rights violations. Meanwhile it regards local human rights bodies with contempt and has had several of their activists killed for exposing the secret cremations of Sikh youths eliminated in 'counters'. The grotesque human rights violations are now widely acknowledged by all serious observers of the conflict in Punjab, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Bodies such as the recently floated Punjab Rights Forum courageously continue to highlight the continuing repression in Punjab.

Alarmingly for those who espouse democratic values and the right to free speech, the Indian state has criminalized even the making of peaceful demands for Sikh freedom and independence. Only last year, on the 19th anniversary of the Sarbat Khalsa of 1986, leaders and activists of the Dal Khalsa and others were imprisoned for calling for Sikh independence by peaceful means in accordance with the right of self determination in international law. Widespread international condemnation of that repression, including the tabling of an Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament, forced India to release those Sikhs but serious charges of sedition against them remain pending in an effort to intimidate the Sikhs in to abandoning their legitimate political and human rights. Let there be no mistake; the Sikhs are a proud and determined nation and we shall never succumb to such tactics. Instead we shall take inspiration from our cherished martyrs and steadfastly take forward the just struggle for our national rights.

We are grateful to British parliamentarians, especially John McDonnell MP and Rob Marris MP, Chairmen, respectively, of the Punjabis in Britain and UK Sikhs All-Party Parliamentary Groups, for their timely intervention in promoting Early Day Motions in the UK Parliament condemning the repression of the Sikhs and calling for the release of all Sikh political prisoners.

We will continue to express our solidarity with other nations and peoples being subjugated by the Indian state, namely those in Indian-held Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Nagaland, all of whom will boycotting India's so-called Republic Day on 26 January.

The Sikhs are aware that the violation of their fundamental human rights, their ongoing political, religious and cultural repression, the theft of their capital city, territories and water resources, the desertification and economic bankruptcy of their homeland is a deliberate but futile attempt by the Indian state to annihilate their sovereignty, and will only ultimately result in nothing short of the liberation of the Sikh Homeland. No other outcome will secure and safeguard the Sikh national interest and no other will be acceptable.

A JOINT STATEMENT RELEASED BY

Council of Khalistan (UK) and Dal Khalsa (International)

ENDS