Fresno: As per media reports, the Fresno City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday night on a resolution to recognise the 1984 killings of thousands of Sikhs in Indian subcontinent as a “genocide”, as per UN’s “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.
According to Fresno Bee, the vote comes nine months after its initial proposal by Councilman Clint Olivier. It also follows a controversy in June after the Indian consul of San Francisco met with council members to convince them Olivier’s draft resolution was inaccurate and one-sided.
Olivier tabled the resolution to do more research after Sudarshan Kapoor, pro-India activist, spoke out against it. Sudarshan Kapoor had alleged that the resolution would create hatred and bitterness.
The language of the resolution has not changed since it was first proposed.
The City Council is scheduled to discuss the resolution at 6 p.m. Sharnjit Purewal, general secretary of the Sikh Council of Central California, said there will be a short presentation detailing what happened in 1984. Buses will transport community members from Sikh Gurdwaras to City Hall to show their support.
A Sikh Group Jakara Movement posted on social networking website Facebook:
