Students of Guru Nanak Dev University, Sri Amritsar held a remembrance event on 37th anniversary of November 1984 Sikh Genocide. The event organised by students organisation “Sath” was held at university campus based Gurdwara Sahib on 8 November, 2020. Sikh Siyasat editor Parmjeet Singh Gazi addressed students during this event.
Parmjeet Singh Gazi, who has recently co-edited a book on Sikh Genocide 1984, said that under the Indian legal system ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’, as such, are not crimes, simply because there is no statute defining and punishing either genocide or crimes against humanity under Indian law.
India’s reasoning for not enacting a law defining and punishing the crime of genocide is that acts amounting to genocide are already punishable under the Indian Penal Code. This position is absurd however, as the physical acts of violence committed in the process of genocide are crimes under the legal systems of all countries. The recognition of genocide as a specific crime reflects the international consensus that genocide is a unique crime, and actually, the “crime of crimes.”
The result of India’s refusal to enact such a law is that genocide and crimes against humanity are not even investigated under the Indian legal system, let alone tried or punished.
He that impunity for genocide and crimes against humanity is embedded within the Indian legal system given the absence of any law dealing with these crimes.
He also discussed that how November 1984 anti-Sikh violence amounts to the crime of genocide and why it should be recognised as “genocide”.
This is video recording of speech of Parmjeet Singh Gazi.