By TCN News,
New Delhi: A massive rally and a public meeting marked the 30th anniversary of the Sikh genocide of 1984 here. It also came up with a ‘Declaration of the People’s Rally’ asserting how the common people will ‘never forget and forgive’ and demanded that the ‘guilty of November 1984 must be punished’ even as they pledged to be ‘united and fight to end state terrorism.’
The rally was organized by Lok Raj Sangathan along with several other organizations wherein hundreds of people marched from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar.
The president of Lok Raj Sangathan S Raghavan observed that the people of Hindostan, belonging to all faiths, all regions of our ancient country, have been fighting ceaselessly for 30 long years to ensure that the truth behind the carnage of 1984 be placed by the government of India before the people and those guilty of organizing it be punished.
Com Prakash Rao of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, Advocate HS Phoolka, Advocate Shahid Ali of United Muslims’Front, N D Pancholi of Citizens for Democracy, Salim Engineer of Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Jarnail Singh, Rafiq Jabbar Mulla of the Social Democratic Party of India, Chaddha of Sikh Forum, S Q Ilyas from the Welfare Party of India, Comrade Siddhantkar of CPI-ML (New Proletarian), Renu Nayak of Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Guruji Hanuman Prasad Sharma, vice president Lok Raj Sangathan, Akhlak Ahmed from APCR, Ansar ul Haq of Popular Front of India, Sharikh Ansar of Student Islamic Organisation and Narpreet Kaur, who has been fighting for justice were among those who addressed the sabha at Jantar Mantar.
Speaker after speaker reiterated that the people cannot “forgive and forget”. They drew attention to the fact that entire experience since the end of British colonial rule, proved that “no matter how many times parties change places in this system, the violence of the State against citizens has only become more and more bestial and blatant.” From the Hindus and Muslims of Punjab, Bengal and Kashmir during the Partition, to the Nagas, Manipuris, Mizos and Kashmiris for decades on end, the list of the victims of state terror has expanded to include the Sikhs in Punjab, Delhi and elsewhere, Muslims in Gujarat, UP and elsewhere, Christians and adivasis in various regions.
At the end of the meeting, the Punjabi Rangmanch, Patiala presented a moving street play, titled “The Genocide of 1984”.
More than 20 organisations participated in the rally. They include Lok Raj Sangathan, Sikh Forum, Communist Ghadar Party of India, Social Democratic Party of India, All India Students’ Association, , Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Better Sikh Schools, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, Sikhi Sidak, Citizens for Democracy, Sikh Chetna Lehar, Jamaat E islami Hindi, United Muslims Front Popular Front of India,, Welfare Party of India, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Qoumi Party of India, People’s Movement against UAPA, National Patriotic People’s Front, People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, Nishant Natya Manch, All India Progressive Women’s Association, CPIML (New Proletarian), SUCI (Communist), Association for Protection of Civil Rights, PUCL Delhi, Akhil Hind Forward Bloc (Krantikari), Bachpan Bachao Andolan, All India Workers’ Council, Ghadar Heritage (Canada), Ghadar International, Nagarik Parishad and National Confederation of Human Rights.
Prominent personalities from all over the country sent their message of solidarity to the Rally. These included Justices Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Hosbet Suresh and Ajit Singh Bains, Teesta Setalwad, Javed Anand, Adv Rajvinder Singh Bains, Justice Rajender Sachaar, Arpana Caur, journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, film producer and directors Shonali Bose and Bedobrata Pain, Prof Nandini Sundar. John Dayal, Anil Chamadia, Salim Engineer, Dr Prem Singh and many others.
The “Declaration of the Peoples’ Rally” was adopted at the rally. It reads as follows:
“We, the people of Hindostan, belonging to all faiths, all regions of our ancient country, have been fighting ceaselessly for thirty long years to ensure that the truth behind the carnage of 1984 be placed by the government of India before the people of our country, and those guilty of organizing it be punished. We have further been demanding that mechanisms be established to ensure that such acts of state terrorism can never again be organized.
Ten governments have come and gone in this period. Ten Commissions of Enquiry have submitted their reports. Till today, no government has accepted that it was the Indian state that organized the genocide. No one has been punished for the brutal murder in broad daylight of over 10,000 innocent people, the rape of women and girls, and the widespread destruction of property.
Those in authority are advising us that “we must forget and forgive”. We can never forget that in 1984, the government completely violated its Rajdharma. It betrayed its sacred responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of people. Instead of being protectors of the people, the government, the police, the courts, became marauders and destroyers of the lives of innocent people. The army, which is supposed to protect the people of the country, remained locked up in the Cantonment for three whole days and nights while the streets of Delhi and other cities were burning with the corpses of innocent people.
We cannot forget that 1984 was neither the first, nor the last act of brutal state terrorism organised by those in power. The agony of the people of Assam, Punjab, Kashmir, Manipur, the massacres which followed the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the Gujarat genocide of 2002, Muzaffarnagar in 2013 — the list is endless.
We the people of Hindostan can only conclude that state terrorism has become the preferred method of rule in our country.
Disinformation is systematically carried out against different sections of our people on the basis of their religion, language, region etc painting them as “terrorist”, “anti national”, and so on. Passions are inflamed against this or that section of our people. Acts of individual terrorism are used to justify state terrorism targeting entire communities, and persecution of people fighting for justice and rights.
When the rulers fail in their duty of protecting people and their lives, what is the solution? The solution is that the people must fulfill their dharma. We must do our duty.
We must unite and fight to create a modern democratic state that will ensure security and prosperity for all by guaranteeing human rights and having enabling mechanisms to ensure their realization. This is Praja dharma, this is the duty of our people today.
This Rally organized on the 30th anniversary of the genocide of Sikhs declares:
We will never forget and forgive!
The guilty of November 1984 must be punished!
Unite and fight to end state terrorism!”