Around 200 Sikhs from across 20 countries are joining the Sikh Federation UK to lobby in the UN Security Council for a “Rwanda-style” international tribunal to investigate crimes during the 1984 anti-Sikh riot that killed more than 17,000 Sikhs.
The SFUK is launching its new “collective platform” in Paris by the end of March and reportedly says it will allow for international co-ordination of a range of political activities around a shared global agenda.
The Times of India reported that last week Narendra Modi-led NDA government accepted that the findings of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice SN Dhingra Committee, accused them of not investigating the anti-Sikh violence properly, while charging some police officers fo rconspiring with perpetrators.
Bhai Amrik Singh, Chair of SFUK reportedly told The Times of India: “Our experiences from the last 35 years and this latest report shows the police, politicians, and judiciary in India are corrupt to the core and the wheels of justice hardly turn. It is therefore impossible to secure justice within the Indian system. We are confident in securing the support of the majority of the five members of the UN Security Council. It is the entire Indian machinery that must be put on trial in an international arena.”
Preet Gill, a British Sikh MP, told TOI: “I welcome the BJP accepting the findings of the Special Investigation Team (SIT). We have seen many investigations take place, so I commend the BJP for pushing this. Union minister Prakash Javadekar has called 1984 (anti-Sikh riots) a genocide and it must be recognised as such,” she said, referring to the Javadekar’s comments where he emphasised that “What happened in 1984 was not just riots but the worst kind of genocide against the Sikhs”.
Lord Singh, a British Sikh peer, also told the newspaper that there should be a criminal investigation into 1984 Sikh genocide. He added, “Many of us have been pressing for it for years. The Indian authorities aren’t doing it.”
But he said that he could not see the UNSC entertaining it. “Britain, America, and Russia have all economic interests in India. It needs an independent inquiry. Britain would support a refusal to consider it. The UN can set it up but big global players should not be involved.”
He also added that ideally, the India government should commission an independent inquiry.
“The Modi government can’t be blamed for 1984 but they could and should have launched an independent inquiry more on the lines of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (assembled in South Africa after apartheid) as to lessons learned and if there is criminal behaviour and people are still about, they should be punished.
“The Justice Dhingra Committee report has not done that. It needs clout. It has drawn attention to failings and abuse in a kind of academic way, but it is not enough. A proper inquiry should go further and look to punishment and lessons learned. The punishment is not as important as to the cause and how it started because there is a feeling in the Sikh community that it started at the very top of the government and there is evidence of that and that has not been clarified. I don’t know why the present government can’t pin the blame on those responsible from Rajiv Gandhi downwards. That is what makes it a genocide — the deliberate, planned extermination of a people of a certain religion — and that has not been investigated.”
