Protests by Sikhs and Kashmiris: A Call to the International Community
26 January 2022: On a day that saw a vibrant protest outside the Indian High Commission in London by Sikhs and Kashmiris, the World Sikh Parliament’s Self-Determination Council issued the below statement to the media which sets out the rationale for the event and similar protests around the world. As India marked its ‘Republic Day’, the unresolved conflicts in Punjab and Kashmir, it says, continue to undermine Hindutva-based establishment propaganda, which falsely tries to project India as a democratic, functional and law-abiding state. With international media present at the London event, loud demands in favour of freedom in Khalistan and Kashmir highlighted the reality – which is becoming increasingly apparent to the wider world. The massively positive response of the Sikh community in the UK to the Punjab independence referendum underlines the extent of the challenge facing the Indian state.
STATEMENT
It is commendable that Sikh and Kashmiri organisations here in the UK have, once again, protested on this ‘Black Day’ in history – a day on which the Indian state adopted a constitution that sought to legitimise its theft of the right of self-determination from the peoples of Punjab and Kashmir. There are similar protests by diaspora communities across the world as well as within Indian-controlled territories. It takes determination and courage to stand up to a militaristic state with such an appalling human rights record, but Sikhs and Kashmiris have demonstrated that their desire for freedom is irrepressible.
It is time the international community recognised and shackled the aggressor, so that democracy and self-determination can deliver peace, prosperity and justice where India’s colonial rule resulted only in genocide, economic destruction and the creation of conditions that endanger peace and stability in the wider region. At a time when extreme right-wing Hindutva fascism fronts a terrorist state, the threat of further conflict and massive rights abuses is alarmingly clear to any neutral observer.
India’s illegal use of force to suppress these regions is driven by its relentless denial of the right of self-determination for their populations. It has also even officially rejected Article 1 of the 1966 Covenants on Human Rights, which sets out that right, in a move formally rejected by the UN’s Human Right Committee and several leading states. It is an untenable position that cannot be allowed to dictate the destiny of tens of millions who simply want to exercise that most basic human right.
Implementing that right is the only way to secure peaceable conflict resolution in Punjab and Kashmir. It is time for the world to urgently hold the Indian state to account and make it comply with its obligations under international law; the Indian constitution was never and will never be a part of the solution. India must also be made to de-militarise these regions and release all political prisoners, so that the authentic leadership of these oppressed nations can restore the democratic deficit.
Genocide perpetrators must never be allowed to succeed, if humanity truly aspires to live by a rules-based international order. The recent, well-publicised, open threats of genocide made by Hindutva-professing leaders in India shine the light on what the alternative will look like.
