New Delhi, India (June 06, 2013): Thousands of Sikhs were brutally massacred throughout India in November 1984. The events are recalled as the ‘Sikh Genocide 1984’. The massacres comprising the Sikh genocide were planned, organized and executed by the contemporary ruling regime of India. Many human rights organization and independent inquiry reports have documented the fact that police did not only stood spectator to the massacre of Sikhs, rather it participated in killings at many places.
Indian state system, including judiciary, shamelessly denied justice to the victims of the genocide and culprits were rewarded with political posts.
Recently a trial court acquitted an Indian politician Sajjan Kumar in Delhi Cantonment area massacre case despite all evidence.
Now, when the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), a body governing the affairs of Sikh Gurdwaras in Delhi, has decided to build a memorial for the victims of Sikh genocide 1984, the Indian state has restored to cheap tactics. Jathedars of five Sikh Takhats are scheduled to lay foundation stone of the Sikh Genocide 1984 memorial with the the precincts of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, located near parliament of India, on June 12, 2013.
On June 07, 2013, the notice by New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) was found pasted on the main gate of the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib complex, which also houses the proposed site for the memorial. Pertinently, a brick platform of four feet height has already been constructed which would be unveiled as part of the foundation laying ceremony on June 12.
According the Hindustan Times (HT) the order by NDMC says: “Construction of an illegal plarform, approximately 2 feet by 3 feet and 4 feet high in open the ground. You are hereby required to show cause within 2 days of the receipt of the notice as to why an order for stoppage of unauthorized constriction be not made”.
According to the media reports: ‘the non-compliance of orders may attract imprisonment up to 6 months or a fine up to Rs 5000 or both’.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the DSGMC has decided to go ahead with it’s plans to construct the memorial. “We will not postpone our programme of lying foundation stone at any cost”, DSGMC President Manjit Singh GK reportedly said.
According to TOI: “[b]laming on Delhi’s Congress government GK alleged that earlier on November 5, 2012, Delhi government had stopped the inaugural function of proposed 1982 Sikh Memorial Park at Punjabi Bagh with the help of police and now the same government had intervened through NDMC”.
“DSGMC didn’t want any conflict with Delhi government but if they were harassed then they were prepared to take on Delhi government on the issue of setting up of memorial of Sikh genocide 1984 victims”, Manjit Singh GK reportedly said further.