Amritsar: Strengthening its resolve to regain independent and sovereign Punjab, the Dal Khalsa said the people of Punjab in general and Sikhs in particular can’t afford to let another 50 years to go by.
Marking the 50 years of formation of Punjab, the Sikh hardliner group organized a conference at village Pheruman dedicated to a Sikh martyr Darshan Singh Pheruman to highlight the misrule of the Union and state governments and suffering of Punjab through the acts of omission and commission of the Delhi rulers.
The organization stated that Sikhs were racially, socially, religiously, ideologically and culturally different from Indians. It further says that Sikhs can only be free if Punjab is free from Indian hegemony. The organization reiterated its principled stand of staying away from elections under Indian dispensation.
The Five Sikhs on behalf of the organizers honored family members of Shaheed Pheruman with a shawl and Siropa.
Addressing the massive gathering at village Pheruman, party head Harpal Singh Cheema said after facing hardships and offering sacrifices the Punjab was reorganized but not before clever gerrymandering by the Indian state through the Punjab State Re-organisation Act, 1966 that snatched Punjabi speaking land, water resources, headwork’s, the capital city Chandigarh and much more from Punjab.
He said the waters of Punjab was being distributed to non-riparian states through a network of canals without any royalty being paid whatsoever by the beneficiary states or the Union government and no Punjab government has asked for such a royalty thereby losing thousands of crores of revenue. He slammed Badal family for ruining the Punjab for their political survival.
Expressing the Sikh pain tormented by the insults and desecration of Guru Sahiban, former head H S Dhami said the Indian state in a well thought out conspiratorial game plan encouraged and sponsored neo-Nirankari cult and another Gurudom and schismatic forums to wean away Sikhs from the unique Sikh concept of Shabad Guru – a formless Guru which was a total antithesis of what Hinduism stood. He said now Guru Granth Sahib is being desecrated without a let-up. He wondered whether the tale of sorrow, deceit and injustice would end.
The organization released an eight-page booklet titled litany of 50 years of blood-soaked, weeping, struggling Punjab on the occasion.
Party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said the successive governments of centre through puppet govts in the state has infiltrated two things one is excessive drugs and second is permanent settlement of migrants. The unlimited access to drugs is to jeopardize the lives of the youth of Punjab and foisting a gigantic population of non-Punjabis into Punjab was aimed to upset the demographic pattern of Punjab reducing the Sikhs to a minority in their own homeland.
After the conference, hundreds of party activists undertook a freedom march from Pheruman to Akal Takhat carrying saffron flags and placards. They chanted slogans favouring independent and sovereign Punjab.
The groups that were part of the march include Sikh Federation, All India Sikh Students Federation, Sikh Youth of Punjab and Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Committee.