Human Rights Day Speech
December 10, 2021, Geneva, Switzerland
By Bakhshish Singh Sandhu MD

Today, on this 73rd anniversary of Human Rights Day, We, the Sikh people of Punjab, here at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, make this declaration that “We shall no longer live-in slavery,” and re-affirm the declaration of independence of Punjab made on April 29, 1986, at Akal Takhat Sahib.

Punjab is currently occupied and colonized by India.

We want to re-establish the sovereignty of the country of Punjab, sovereignty by the exercise of the Right to self-determination, enshrined in the UN Charter. We are following this internationally recognized process (the right to self-determination) by peaceful, legal, and democratic means.

We are challenging India that it has no legal standing to oppose and block Punjab Independence Referendum.

Now, we are demanding India, end the occupation of Punjab.

Today, the people of Punjab are being forced into a deeper state of slavery, subjugation, despotism, and economic deprivation.

Only, in an independent Punjab, can its people realize religious, political, economic, and linguistic freedom.

Sikhs in India are facing existential threat. In Punjab and the rest of India, they are subjected to ongoing persecution, unspeakable tortures, and genocidal violence going on since India’s Independence in 1947. Indian army invasion of Darbar Sahib (GTA) in June 1984, resulting in the death of more than ten thousand Sikhs, mostly pilgrims; and genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and all over India in November 1984, leading to the massacre of more than 30,000 Sikhs, are prime examples.

More than 150,000 Sikhs have been killed in India in 75 years, since 1947. This number is more than, all those killed, in two hundred years, fighting for freedom, before 1947.

Overseas, India is not leaving any stone unturned, by targeting Sikhs, to suppress their right to free speech, assembly, and the right to self-determination for the independence of Punjab, through a concerted disinformation campaign, by dissemination of fake concocted news, and use of dark web sites.
India is criminalizing our political opinion, our right to free speech and assembly. Several SFJ activists and volunteers have been arrested, tortured, charged, and sentenced as terrorists under draconian laws like UAPA (the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967). Some of them have been handed life imprisonment for peacefully distributing literature on Khalistan.

We want to bring to the attention of the United Nations and all the people of the world that India has violated every one of the thirty clauses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDRH).

India is pressuring foreign governments like Canada to declare Sikhs for justice a terrorist organization. In doing so India is trying to export its fake democracy, the democracy-Indian style, to the Western countries.

Sikhs are being falsely labeled as terrorists while they are on the receiving end of India’s state-sponsored terrorism.

We fought with the Allied Forces in World War I, and World War II, and got India freed from the Mughals and the British.

We demand the independence of Punjab, for the very same reasons, that India and the thirteen colonies of the United States of America put forward to obtain freedom from British rule.

Now, we are asking all the freedom-loving people of the world, especially the USA, the UK, Canada, and other world powers to come and stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, and deliver on their commitment, to the Right to Self-Determination.

The Right to Self-Determination is cemented in Article 1 of the charter of the United Nations. It is a compelling law, it is irreproachable, it cannot be derogated, and is not open to appeal or challenge.

We are asking the countries like Southern Sudan, Kosovo, and East Timor, and others who have achieved independence by referendums, to stand with us.

We are asking the countries like Canada, which allowed the Quebec referendum twice in 1980, and 1995, and the UK, which allowed the Scotland Referendum in 2014, to stand, by our side.

We are demanding that India honor and accept the Punjab Independence Referendum results, just as it did accept the results of its referendums to attach Junagarh in 1948, and Sikkim, in 1975.

Now, is the time, for the peace and freedom-loving people to stand with us and deliver on the principles of freedom, and human rights, the principles that you all hold dearly, so close to your hearts.

We are, at the same time, thankful to all those countries, who have afforded us asylum to protect us from the onslaught of persecution in India, India’s state-sponsored terrorism, and the ongoing genocidal violence in India, including the bounties and promotions for the heads of Sikhs.

As an independent country, Punjab will join the UN team of peacekeeping forces, and significantly increase its contribution to the UN goal of ending hunger in the world by 2030.

Khalistan movement is not just a thing of today. It is grounded in centuries of Sikh history of fighting wars for independence and religious freedom, and it is grounded in tomorrow because the people of Punjab have realized that the sovereignty of Punjab is their only option.

We are asking the United Nations to hold an UN-supervised binding referendum in Punjab. Let us add the Khalistan flag to the flags of independent nations, in front of the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland

Bakhshish Singh Sandhu, MD
President Council of Khalistan
Email: [email protected]