Hoshiarpur: Sikh Youth of Punjab (SYP) strongly criticised Indian government for opposing the United Nations resolution that “sought to promote a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty”.
Regretting India’s standpoint on the subject, the Dal Khalsa’s youth wing is of the view that the enlightened section and god-fearing people are united in joining the chorus of abolition of death penalty in India and in South Asia.
Sikh Youth of Punjab leaders | File Photo
Reiterating their group’s principle stance that capital punishment should be fully abolished from statute, the office bearers of the organization Paramjit Singh Tanda, Gurmeet Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Gurnam Singh and Harjot Singh said the minority communities were already suffering bias in this country. Most of the people who have been hanged recently or those who are on death row belongs to minority community”, they said.
They said as per UN website, the resolution was, however, adopted with 115 votes in favour to 38 against, with 31 abstentions following an “intense discussion”.
Taking a dig at the Indian justice system, they rue that on one hand the killers of hundreds of innocent Sikhs in Nov 1984 carnage have escaped the long-arm of the law, while those who fought against injustice and desecration faced hangman’s noose.
The young Sikh activists demanded that India should shun its stubborn attitude and support all efforts being made by the Amnesty International and the UN to abolish death penalty worldwide.