Ludhiana (April 22, 2010): In a statement issued from here, Bhai Daljeet Singh Bittu, Chairman of Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhnai), who is currently confined in Central Jail Amritsar, has expressed solidarity and support for Tribal people, fighting against atrocities, exploitation and oppression. The Statement, a copy of that is available with SikhSiyasat Network runs as follows:
Walkup Comrades, we, the Sikhs, firmly support your just cause and struggle for vanishing the curse of exploitation, oppression and discrimination in every form, from the land of India.
The Maoist struggle is a just struggle against the exploitation and oppression by the avaricious Capitalists, who want to grab the land, forests and mineral resources from the hands of the ethnic people inhabiting the regions of Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal etc. These ethnic people are the legitimate owners of the land, forests and such other resources. The Indian State is serving the interests of big capitalists by denying people of their traditional rights to forest produce. It snatched their right to livelihood and dignity, and sent the armed forces to drown the struggle of the poor people into the pool of blood.
We, the Sikhs, have suffered this cruelty of the Indian state during the last three decades; therefore we can understand what is going on there, in these states, under the name of “counter insurgency operations”.
In the name of bringing the tribals into ‘main-stream’, the Indian State is committing a dual crime. On the one hand, it is displacing large number of people, turning them into refugees, and, on the other hand, it is destroying their distinct identity by expediting the process of imposing the “uniform culture” on these ethnic people.
Sikh religion is based on human equality, elimination of discrimination and exploitation in any form. It is fundamental for a Sikh to stand by the victims of oppression & exploitation and oppose such inhuman & cruel practices. Therefore, any struggle, in any form, which is directed against exploitation and oppression, deserves our firm support.
We, all, must understand that if the Government succeeds in its’ wicked intentions of suppressing this just struggle, then it would be ominous for poor and laboring people, victims of caste-based Brahminism, and all minorities & struggling nations residing in this peninsula. In this situation we call upon all the people of India, who believe in human values and oppose exploitation & oppression, to stand by the struggling tribal people, and firmly oppose the oppressive designs and actions of the Indian State, in what ever form they can.