|
Sikhs in Britain mark
self-determination day for community
WSN Network
 Birmingham:
Even as the general elections proceeded in
India,
the Sikhs in Britain underlined the debate about demand for a
sovereign Sikh state as some prominent faces from the community led
the observance of Khalistan Day functions to mark the 1986
declaration. The day is celebrated with much more gusto among the
diaspora Sikhs than in India where possible fears of reprisal action
and an increasingly non-ideological way of politics has veered the
community away from real and core concerns.
Many Sikh
leaders participated through phone link ups. Kanwarpal Singh, leader
of Dal Khalsa in Punjab, reiterated the resolve to carry on the
struggle while Professor Tim Kaping, President of the Naga Support
Centre, UK addressed the Conference on behalf of Isac Muivah, and Dr
Mukul Hazarika of AssamWatch spoke of India’s subjugation of so many
nations who now “bear a heavy responsibility in carrying our
respective torches of freedom in the free world”.
Khaled Mahmood,
MP, an advocate of Kashmiri self-determination as demanded by UN
Security Council Resolutions, sent a message of support in which he
said the Sikhs as a nation are entitled to pursue, in accordance
with international law, the right of self-determination and deplored
the continuing attempts by the Indian authorities to criminalise
their leaders with sedition cases for simply calling for their
national rights to be respected.
Lord Nazir Ahmed
said that freedom for Kashmir and Khalistan would bring true
stability and peace in a region that is now looking in to the abyss
with failed intervention and even misadventure by foreign powers.
Simranjit Singh
Mann (Punjab) and Dr Amarjit Singh (USA) also addressed the
audience.
The Conference
was followed by a meeting of the Sikh Advisory Panel of a cross
party group at Westminster, ‘Parliamentarians for National
Self-Determination’, which endorsed the resolutions passed at the
Conference and agreed steps to further internationalise the struggle
for self-determination and the campaign to put the perpetrators of
Sikh genocide before a criminal court. Messages sent to Ranjit Singh
Srai by Parliamentarians for the meeting included John Spellar, MP
who noted that “25 years after Operation Bluestar (the storming of
the
Golden
Temple)
human rights is still a burning issue for the Sikhs which still
requires attention and justice”. Elfyn Llwyd MP’s message called for
a meaningful dialogue between the Sikhs and the Indian Government to
tackle ‘unresolved business’ since 1984.
Liz Lynne, MEP
in her message called on “the Indian Government to recognise its
responsibility for the horrific actions which took place in
Delhi
(1984 anti-Sikh pogroms) and for the perpetrators of this crime to
be brought to justice”. Roger Godsiff, MP criticised the
criminalisation of Sikh leaders saying that “I very much support the
right of the Sikh people to engage in democratic and peaceful
political activity”.
13
May 2009
|
Read Also