By TCN News,
Washington DC: Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), a broad alliance dedicated to justice and accountability for the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, has expressed serious concern over the Indian state government’s lack of response to the month long hunger strike by Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa, a Sikh farmer from Haryana.
Mr. Khalsa, a former prisoner turned activist, has undertaken this hunger strike to draw attention to the continued detention of Sikh prisoners convicted in the post-1984 cycles of state repression and political violence even after they have completed their sentences.
“In India a life sentence is usually reviewed after 14 years but the Sikh prisoners are not getting this review. Treating the Sikhs different than the others will increase the feelings of discrimination among the Sikh minority which will not be healthy for the Indian society.” said Rajinder Singh Mago, a member of CAG. CAG is requesting the government of India to take prompt action on the demands by Mr. Khalsa, Sikh leaders, and national and international human rights bodies.
“A number of Sikhs were falsely arrested, charged and convicted. Many of them are still in jails despite their old age. It’s my personal opinion all such prisoners – whichever community they may belong to – should be set free now,” said Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the top Sikh religious administration in Punjab.
Rights attorneys say authorities are selectively rejecting reviews of Sikh inmates incarcerated during the Punjab militancy. Human Rights Watch, in a statement to CNN, called upon Indian authorities not to let prisoners remain behind the bars beyond their sentences, noting that “(t)here were serious human rights abuses during the Punjab insurgency.”
International rights groups have accused both the Indian state and Sikh militants of engaging in serious violations of human rights during the insurgency which peaked in the 1980s. Hundreds of men including those who either were members of militant groups or were suspected to have been sympathetic to such groups were annihilated by the security forces often in cold blooded “encounter killings.” In addition violations committed by security forces against unarmed civilians included illegal detentions, torture, and summary executions – all of which have never been subjected to rigorous legal scrutiny, and no formal processes of legal redress undertaken.
Coupled with this, successive administrations in India have willfully turned a blind eye to the culpability of powerful politicians in the Congress Party who had organized and actively participated in the widespread killings of Sikhs in 1984 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The impunity enjoyed by the powerful culprits involved in the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 remains the norm, and is the main source of distrust and alienation many Sikhs feel towards the Indian state. The precedent set by the Congress Party in defending and protecting the perpetrators of the 1984 pogrom has caused immeasurable damage to democracy as we can see how yet another perpetrator of mass murder is being touted today as a potential prime minister.
CAG supports the courageous efforts of non-violent movements for justice seeking justice for all political prisoners in India – from Chhattisgarh to Gujarat, Orissa to Punjab – who are languishing in jails without due review of their cases, many of whom have already served their long sentences.
CAG also reiterates its demand that those involved in the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 be brought to justice. The lack of judicial deterrence has encouraged a wave of mass killings including the pogrom of Muslims in Gujarat, Assam and Muzaffarnagar, and that of Dalits in villages like Laxmanpur Bathe in Bihar. In the latter case the Patna High Court outrageously overturned the convictions of 26 persons including 16 who were awarded death sentence for killing 58 Dalits.
REFERENCES:
CNN: Sikh farmer on hunger strike in India for prisoners’ release
Times of India: Gurbax Singh’s hunger strike, Dal Khalsa writes to Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch: Bring Charges for Newly Discovered Massacre of Sikhs, April 25, 2011