VANCOUVER – On Wednesday, several Gurdwara Societies and Sikh Organizations gathered to collectively condemn the Indian court’s rejection of Professor Devender Pal Singh’s plea and against the upholding of the illegal death sentencing given to him.
The Societies said in a statement: “Professor Bhullar’s 18 year-long case has accumulated to two decades of illegal detainment (including 10 years of solitary confinement), physical torture, arbitrary evidence, no witnesses, one supreme court judge’s acquittal of the case, while two others sentenced death based solely on a court retracted confessional statement, a fragmented and fumbling procession of court procedures and today, the sentencing of a man that has been tortured to the point of mental unsoundness and ill physical health. As per a statement released by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), Dr. Nimesh G. Desai, who heads the team of doctors looking after Bhullar at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), stated “As a human being and as death-row convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s doctor, my conscience does not allow me to clear this person to be hanged. He is not mentally fit to be medically cleared for hanging.”
International Human Rights Organization, Amnesty International has this to say in regards to the use of the death penalty:
“The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. This cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is done in the name of justice and it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” In calling itself a democracy, the Indian Union falls considerably short time and time again when dealing with human rights issues pertaining to minorities within its enforced borders.
The Societies say with the continuous denial of justice to the victims of the Sikh Genocide within the Indian state, promotion of its instigators to high-level political and governmental posts, and ongoing confinement/illegal detention of Sikh political prisoners it is time for the Sikh nation to define what “Justice” truly is and whether any hope of it remains 30 years on within India’s corrupt judicial system. Until the Sikh nation is secure within an independent Punjab and can handle its internal affairs without the constant meddling of the central government, the oppression of human rights, suppression of information and propaganda against the Sikh nation will continue.
Moninder Singh of the Canadian Sikh Coalition (a representative body of many Gurdwara Societies across Canada) stated “On a day when India celebrates its independence, the Sikh nation is again left wondering where it all went wrong as Professor Bhullar’s plea has been rejected. Since 1947 the Sikhs and other minorities within the Indian Union have been victimized and demonized by the state and its agencies. From partition (1947) to the Punjabi Suba movement (1950s & 60s) to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution (1973-1984)to the Dharam Yudh morcha (1980s)to Operation Bluestar (June 1984) to the Sikh genocide (November 1984) to the demand for an independant Punjab (1980s-Present) and up until today…the Sikh nation has left no stone unturned in its demand for the rights of Punjab and its people. It is imperative that minority communities across India come together and in solidarity work to end the conditions of slavery from which they are subject to.”
As public pressure is being applied all over the world in regards to the case of Professor Bhullar, the local groups are urging Sikhs everywhere to continue writing to your government representatives, meeting Foreign Affairs Ministries in your respective nations and peacefully protesting this denial of basic human rights and doing everything in your power to help save an innocent man from an unlawful death.
