A Case For Independence of Punjab-Khalistan

Dr. Gurmeet Singh Aulakh<br/>Former President Council of Khalistan
Dr. Gurmeet Singh Aulakh
Former President Council of Khalistan
Bakhshish Singh Sandhu, MD<br/>President Council of Khalistan
Bakhshish Singh Sandhu, MD
President Council of Khalistan

The Sikhs need to liberate Punjab-Khalistan from the repressive Indian state as they are slaves in India religiously, economically, linguistically, geographically, and politically. They need an independent country to protect Sikhi and Sikh identity, freedom, justice, and social equality.

The Sikhs need clarity of vision to realize what on the horizon for them on a short and long-term basis. In the short term their religion, language, and means of sustenance are at stake. In the long term their identity and uniqueness are danger of extinction if they fail to act decisively in a timely fashion. They ought to look at the bigger picture of their future and the long history of their struggle for survival and protection of their faith from the perpetual attacks by the hawkish enemies surrounding them. They also need to recognize the enemy surrounding them and the enemy within.

They need to realize the real meaning of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus; their vision of the altruistic society; their struggle, peaceful and armed; sacrifices to protect their faith; to uplift the downtrodden; and their firm resolve in the extremes of adversity.

The Indian government has been attacking Sikh institutions killing thousands of innocent unarmed Sikhs at will with impunity since 1947 and beyond.

They just can’t just interpret Sikhi (Sikhism) based on their narrow self-interests, confining it to justify their own actions or thoughts. The eleven Sikh gurus, eleventh being, ‘The Sikh Holy Scripture’ reflect the same divine illumination that cannot be interpreted with a thought of divergence in their teaching.

People need to realize the lesson from the history of mankind that only the armed prophets succeeded in their missions which the Sikh gurus not only understood but also acted accordingly to protect themselves from the tyrants visible or invisible. And the concept of those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. Lest we ignore our long struggle for freedom and justice.

Below is a compelling argument for Independent Punjab-Khalistan.

The Indian government has been attacking Sikh institutions killing thousands of innocent unarmed Sikhs at will with impunity since 1947. India controls Punjab's economy by looting its natural resources by violating riparian rights and setting price of produce and fertilizers unfavorable to the farmers, the root cause of very high rate of suicide among the Punjabi peasants. India is destroying our mother tongue Punjabi. Desecration of Sri Guru Granth sahib is all too common. Sikh leadership of Punjab has sold itself to India for personal gains ignoring the very rights of the people they are elected to protect and represent.

Guru Gobind Singh declared that people need political freedom to protect their faith. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale said, “Indian government attack on Harmandar Sahib will lay down the foundation of independent Khalistan.” So, it did in June 1984 and now it is our responsibility to build this country. On January 26, 1986 Sarbat Khalsa made a resolution of Independent Khalistan. On April 29, 1986 Sarbat Khalsa made a declaration of independent Khalistan from Akal Takhat, Harmandar Sahib Amritsar.

In November 2015, a Sarbat Khalsa (global Sikh congregation) in Amritsar district adopted 13 resolutions to strengthen Sikh institutions and traditions. The twelfth resolution in this document reaffirmed the resolution already adopted by Sarbat Khalsa in 1986, the pursuit of the sovereign State of Khalistan.

The Indian government has declared a war on the Sikhs on multiple fronts, open and hidden.

Indian government attacked Harmandar sahib on July 4, 1955 and injured thousands of Sikh men and women who were peacefully demanding Punjabi Suba (not Khalistan) to shut them down. In June 1984 Indian army invaded Harmandar Sahib with tanks and helicopters killing thousands of Sikh men, women and children on one of the busiest days in Sikh history; the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan. India simultaneously attacked 37 other Gurdwara having well understood that Sant Jarnail Singh Bhinderanwale was definitely at Harmandar Sahib. India took years to prepare and practice the attack by preparing a replica of Harmandar Sahib in the mountains. Don’t be confused or mislead that Indian government wanted to capture Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. It was in fact to break Sikhs physically and mentally with a devastating blow, which the Indian government later admitted

In November 1984 mobs with the connivance of the Congress party led Indian government carried out Sikh Genocide by necklacing thousands of Sikhs, gang raping hundreds of women in the open, roasting children, hanging Sikhs at railway stations and shoving then into furnaces in Bokaro Steel plant. The killing rampage went on for several days in Delhi, 17 other states and more than 100 Indian cities. The police either participated in killing Sikhs or just looked away. Despite efforts justice has been elusive.

Operation Woodrose (1984-1992) was a military operation carried out by Indira Gandhi led Indian government to prevent outbreak of widespread public protest after the Operation Blue Star. Hundreds of thousands of Sikh youth were captured, tortured and killed.

Operation Shanti was to take place on November 8, 1984, would have killed millions of Sikhs. Sikh Nation will remain ever so grateful to Bhai Satwant singh and Beant singh and their accomplice for foiling this attack well in advance by assassinating Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Operation Black Thunder-1, took place on April 30, 1986 a day after the declaration of Independent Khalistan on April 29, 1986 from Akal Takhat, in which 300 National security Guards Commandos stormed Golden Temple along with 700 Border Security Forces and captured 300 Sikh militants.

Operation Black Thunder -2 commanded by Kanwar Pal Singh Gill who was DGP of Punjab, took place on May 9, 1988, in which 200 Sikh militants were arrested, 41 killed.

India wants Sikhs to be slaves and not even realize it. India wants to kill and torture Sikhs and expects them to stay quiet and still love her.

And the genocide continues although in different forms and intensity.

The natural resources of Punjab are being looted till today while the Punjabis do not have water and electricity enough to fulfill our own needs. Poverty in Punjab is being perpetuated by fixing produce and fertilizer prices. Rampant drug abuse, government officials participating in the drug trade and lack of education are deliberately overlooked.

If you still have doubt, read the book, “Dalit, The Black Untouchables of India” and you would realize that what India is doing to Sikhs for centuries, is the same it has been doing to the Dalits for thousands of years. Do you want to go the way of the Dalits? Of course not. Right now, that is the way we are heading, but we can stop it.

Before the partition of India in 1947, the Congress leaders made promises to woo the Sikhs to join them.

Mahatma Gandhi Said, “ I ask Sikhs to accept my word and resolution of congress that it will not betray a single individual, much less a community….if it does so, the Congress will not only seal its own doom but that of the country too. Moreover, the Sikhs are brave people. They know how to safeguard their rights by exercise of arms if it should ever come to that.”

At the all India committee meeting in Calcutta in 1946, Jawahar Lal Nehru reiterated, “The brave Sikhs of Punjab are entitled to special consideration. I see nothing wrong in an area and a set up in north wherein the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom.”

Indian army invaded Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple Amritsar) in June 1984 and killed more than 10,000 innocent unarmed Sikh men, women and children in cold blood at point blank range under the operation code named ‘Operation Blue Star’. Thirty-seven other Sikh Gurdwaras were also attacked simultaneously.

India government carried out Sikh genocide in November 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 in which Sikhs were attacked in Delhi and 17 other India states and 100 other cities killing more than 30,000 Sikhs all over India.

The Sikh Genocide continues till today. This genocide has two fronts:

The open genocide in which Sikhs are attacked, tortured and killed with impunity.

The hidden genocide is being carried out indirectly under the surface in different shapes and forms which is even more dangerous and is not easily detectable. This is in the form of Econocide of the people of Punjab, looting of Punjab’s natural resources without compensation, unchecked distribution of drugs of the Punjab youth leading to their slow death, making Sikh farmers commit suicides for their nonpayment of loans made to them for which they did not qualify. Deprivation Punjabis of education and means of earing their living by intentional holding back of any developmental projects in Punjab are other ways to accomplish the same goal of keeping the Punjabis poor and uneducated so that they never recognize that they are slaves in their own homeland. Putting people in jails for life imprisonment for mere distribution of literature on Referendum 2020 for independence of Punjab-Khalistan is another way to intimidate them and block their right to free speech and association.

Destruction of Akal Takhat Sahib during India army attack on Golden Temple Amritsar, June 1984

The Open War

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Sikhs properties set ablaze and left-Sikhs lying dead in Delhi during 1984 Sikh Genocide

The Hidden War

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Sikh women mourning their dead during 1984 Sikh Genocide in Delhi

Deception and False Promises

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A burnt down Sikh house during 1984 Sikh Genocide in Delhi

India’s State Sponsored Terrorism

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Systematic Defamation of Sikhs and Fabrication of Lies

India wants to label Sikhs as terrorists. But in reality who is the terrorist? By killing hundreds of thousands of Sikhs since 1947 clearly India holds this title.

India is the terrorist state and Sikhs are victims of Indian terrorism.

Mutilated Sikh bodies being unloaded from a truck in Punjab for disposal during extra-judicial killing of innocent Sikhs

War on Sikhs in Diaspora

India is trying to turn world Opinion against the Sikhs by projecting them as terrorists and embarrassing their sympathizers and trying to turn them against the Sikhs. India does not hesitate to kill its own people to blame the Sikhs like the bombing of Air India flight 182 from Toronto in 1985.

Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh who fought fourteen battles, after leaving Chamkaur Sahib said, “One must be ready to die to protect one’s faith and the righteous cause." He also said that one cannot protect his/her religion without political power.

Guru Hargobind Sahib

When Guru Hargobind Sahib met Shah Daula in the South, he was astonished to see Guru Hargobind Sahib and questioned the Guru, “You are married and have kids, you are well dressed with two swords and plume in your turban, and you have money, how do you call yourself a Guru?

Guru Sahib answered, “Wife is a man’s conscience, and kids carry his memories, wealth enables him to live and buy swords, and the swords are needed to control the tyrants.”

And from time to time Sikhs have done, what they had to do to protect Sikhi and the Khalsa Panth. Guru Gobind Singh fought 14 battles against the Hindu Hill-Kings and won them all. Guru Har Gobind won four battles against the Mughals. It was Bhagat Singh who bombed the British Capital of Lahore and shook the roots of the British Empire. It was Bhai Udham Singh who shot Governor Michael O’Dwyer in London on 13 March 1940, at point-blank range and the whole of India breathed a sigh of relief and felt that their persecution would soon end. The sacrifices of Bhai Satwant Singh and Bhai Beant Singh, Bhai Sukha and Bhai Jinda, and hundreds of thousands of other martyrs have borne fruit. As goes the proverb, “Those who dare, win.” Sikhs are daring people. They can win independent Khalistan.

The Real India

Deep down in India nobody is Indian. It is labeled planet India, not country India and rightly so. However, if you the Sikhs, are naïve and still think you are Indian and have a place in India, think again, then only God may save you. The Indian political system which does not protect its own, cannot be expected nor can be trusted to protect the Sikhs.

Some of the Sikhs think India is their country. This is a big misconception. You may think India is your country but India does not consider you as its citizens.

Educate yourself, then open your eyes and see vividly the reality (your eyes see only what your brain knows); you are slaves, because that how you are treated when you protest or demand your rights.

If that is not enough, ponder on the fate of Buddhism, Jainism Lingayatism, and Dalits in India.

Indian policy is to bribe, control, intimidate, torture, and kill if necessary. Fabrication of lies, false propaganda, hiding facts, not allowing foreign agencies to assess the situation firsthand, control on judiciary are normal operations. Nothing is sacred except the cow on the surface when it comes to killing minorities. Deep down reverence of a cow is just another hypocrisy, India being one of the largest exporters of beef meat and collection of unofficial tolls on cows being transported for slaughter. India has denied the visa to the delegation of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom three time. Why? What is India hiding? India is hiding genocide of Sikhs, rapes, murders, burning of Christian churches and religious repression of Sikhs, Muslims and Christians and other religious minorities. In April 2020 Unites States Commission on International Religious Freedom degraded India to Tier-One status for worsening of religious freedom under Narendra Modi's leadership.

Modi’s party BJP wants to make India a Hindu country. Nor does India consider Sikhs as Sikhs. Section 25-b of Indian constitution treats us as Hindu. What more can Indian Government do to make Sikhs realize that they are slaves? Nothing, they have already tried everything else.

They have done everything…and failed. May be a nuclear bomb is next, because India has used everything else. But India would probably not do that knowing so well that they could never win a ground war against Pakistan without Sikhs no matter how many atoms bombs they deploy. But when Khalistan is reality, they would not have to worry about fighting wars with Pakistan, Punjab serving as a buffer state between the two.

Referendum 2020 and Other Referendums

  • Referendum 2020 is legal, democratic and peaceful process for achieving independence of Punjab-Khalistan.
  • UN charter-Chapter 1, article 1, part -2 allows and supports self-determination.
  • Canada allowed referendum in Quebec, twice May 1980 and October 1995
  • UK allowed referendum in Scotland in September 2014
  • India allowed referendum in Junagarh in 1948 and
  • Sikkim merged with India in 1975 with a referendum vote
  • It is India’s legal obligation to allow Referendum 2020.
  • It is India’s moral obligation to protect minority religions.
  • Many countries have become independent by referendums like South Sudan, East Timor and Kosovo.
  • Punjab has the best potential to become independent country.