Hoshiarpur: Extending its greetings to the Muslims of Pakistan and Hindus of India for enjoying the fruits of their independence, the Dal Khalsa rues that ‘Sikhs were not lucky enough to get their own Homeland 65 years ago on this day’. Party head H S Dhami in a policy statement said while Pakistan and India were celebrating their 65th Independence Day with great fervor, we, the Sikhs regret that “we had missed the bus”. However, he reiterated that the Sikh desire for freedom is alive and kicking. By tying their destiny with India in 1947 on this day, the Sikhs literally enslaved themselves again. “Since then, whenever we had asked for our rights, we had to face bullets, detention and hardships, said he. He urged the Sikhs not to forget the various actions taken by Indian state against the Sikhs before taking part in celebrations. He said the genesis of the Sikh problem was rooted in the betrayal of commitments and promises Indian leaders made during the partition. Appointing individuals at the higher ranking constitutional post was a ploy to deceive the world that the country was “secular” in real sense, he pointed out. He said, on the entire political spectrum, from left to right, we are suffering from an overdose of over-patriotism. "Presently, in India, dissension is sedition". The last few decades have been tumultuous years of denial, torment, torture, mayhem, vandalism and death. Of course, there have been individual success stories. Playing divide and rule game, the Indian state heaped and perpetuated hate, animosity and discrimination on the one hand and on the other afforded opportunity and provided sponsorship to some individuals to rise to heights of glory, creating a façade of satisfaction and inculcating a misplaced sense of glory and welfare of the whole Sikh corpus. “Some may think that we are always negative, that we see the darker side of things. It is not so. We are always positive about the future of our people. We are only reiterating our fundamental freedom to be masters of our own destiny, exactly in the same way as others have done so far". The statement expressed solidarity with struggling ethnic minorities especially the Kashmiris. "Right now, the Kashmiris, Nagas and Assamese are also observing India's Independence Day as a Black Day. Let us make a pledge that the common cause of all oppressed peoples will be brought to one platform". He urged the Indian state and the world community to acknowledge the right to self determination of all struggling peoples in accordance with international treaties and covenants, which all democratic nations are expected to adhere to and oblige.
