Sikh organization stage protest in Amritsar

Amritsar, Punjab: Sikh organization Dal Khalsa today said whoever ruled the Centre post-Lok Sabha elections, the constitutional and executive wrongs done to the Sikhs must be corrected.

Dal Khalsa activists in association with SAD (Panch Pardani) and Damdami Taksal staged a peaceful sit-in at Bhandari Bridge here to protest against what it called “constitutional wrongs”. Hundreds of activists, mostly youngsters, holding black flags and placards, distributed leaflets to passers-by. They protested against the denial of Sikh personal law and right to self-determination, besides “continued loot of rivers”.

Dal Khalsa chief HS Dhami said Indian polity must understand and accept that Sikhs were a distinct people. Reasserting that Sikhs had their distinct identity, he said Sikh allegiance towards the Akal Takht and doctrine of Sikhism was total.

Dhami said, “While we talk of progress and development in Punjab, we also need to ask why Indian state, in flagrant violation of International Riparian principles, has taken full control of Punjab’s rivers.”

Reflecting upon the years gone by, on the eve of the Republic Day, Damdami Taksal chief Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa said, “The state has ill-treated Sikhs, robbed them of their identity and forced Hindu laws on them”. RP Singh, chief spokesperson of Akand Kirtani Jatha, blamed that constitutional provisions continued to haunt the Sikhs.

The recent threat of eviction of Sikh farmers in Gujarat was a classic example of discrimination and double-standards faced by Sikhs in this country, said Dal Khalsa leader Sarbjit Singh Ghuman.

Source: The Tribune