Kashipur Episode Reminiscent Of Blue Star And Nove

[D S Gill Chair IHRO]

Source: https://www.ihro.in/?q=node/57

Kashipur episode reminiscent of Blue Star and November ’84

Minorities are insecure in India

It is a political problem needs to be settled politically

The Kashipur incidents are nothing but the repetition of the past happenings like Blue Star and November 1984 Sikh carnage managed and organised by the Congress regime of the time. And, it is not a coincident that this time, in case of the Kashipur episode, too it is Congress government in the saddle that had let loose state brutality and atrocities on the innocent farmers of the area. Seeds of the state repression were sowed by the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) together when Udhamsingh Nagar district was included in the newly formed Uttaranchal out of the Terai area of UP. And for these entire happenings, SAD president Parkash Singh Badal and the BJP could not be absolved of their responsibility for the sad Kashipur episode of uprooting the Punjabi farmers from their respective lands.

The Punjab Rights Forum, a representative body of various political parties, human rights bodies and religious organisations of Punjab, sought immediate intervention of President of India to prevent the unfolding of yet another inglorious chapter in the relationship between the Sikhs and the government of India. The PRF’s constituents demonstrated on January 17 at district headquarters in Punjab to protest the ugly incidents in Kashipur. Since 1984, the Indian state has been following a sinister policy of retribution against the Sikhs in Panjab and elsewhere in the country. As a result, thousands have been killed extra-judicially, tortured, humiliated and imprisoned. It is very sad to note that the State has done nothing whatsoever to rehabilitate families of victims. On the contrary, to rub salt on their wounds, still a large number of detenue, young and old are languishing in prisons, some without trial. Recently, the Congress government in Uttaranchal Pradesh unleashed a wave of terror on Sikh and Punjabi farmers settled in Udham Singh Nagar district. Men were beaten up. Women and children were abused by the bureaucrats and police on duty. The Congress government evicted a large number of farmers settled there since 1947. This eviction was nothing but ethnic cleansing reminiscent of the days of 1947 and 1984. The Punjab Rights Forum also sought to restore back their land holdings, along with full compensation, and with constitutional guarantee that in future they would not be subjected to state ceiling laws except the then (at the time of merger) prevailing in UP.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Sikh families settled in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttaranchal have moved the Supreme Court, alleging that they are being illegally evicted by the state government from the land allotted to them. In a petition moved by the farmers through the Guru Nanak Mission International (GNMI), they pleaded that neither the political establishments in the state and at the Centre, nor courts below had come to their rescue even as the issue of their eviction by the Uttaranchal Government had been raised by them with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and senior CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet. Taking cognisance of the special leave petition of the GNMI, the apex court has directed that the 251 Sikh families facing eviction orders should not be disturbed from their land and status quo should be maintained. The petition was moved after the Uttaranchal High Court had refused to grant stay on eviction of these families belonging to Dohrivakil, Kharmasa, Panchwala and Ram Nagar villages in Kashipur Tehsil. They were settled there in phases between 1965 and 1970. The interim direction against eviction was issued by a Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice R.V. Raveendran, which issued notices to the Uttaranchal Government, seeking its reply.

On January 23, Parkash Singh Badal along with other Akali leaders went to Kashipur to meet the victims evicted from the Escorts farm there. They, with tears in their eyes, narrated their tale of woe to Akali leaders. Many of the farmers and their families were still living in tents or in other improvised shelters, according to Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, secretary of the SAD. Commenting on what happened to the farmers at Kashipur, Badal, said, “Even the British did not go to the extent of demolishing the houses of freedom fighters like this. This incident had shocked the whole country. It was a grave violation of human rights. I have never seen elected government acting in such a cruel way against people.” Reports are pouring in from there that the state administration is not following or implementing the directions of the Apex court in its true spirit. Many people identify a Punjabi officer, Commissioner, Mr Sharma, for all the trouble and agony of the farmers.

Punjabi Sikh farmers there are leaderless because most of them hold Parkash Singh Badal responsible for that had happened there. Badal clandestinely had sold his lands from Bazpur area knowing fully well that Sikh farmers will face problems after the merger of US Nagar district in Uttaranchal. And he had connived with the BJP and agreed to the merger proposal, the brainchild of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Surjit Singh Barnala, while he was Governor of Uttaranchal, did nothing to find out permanent solution of the problem. The land ceiling limit of 3.5 acres in Uttaranchal state always haunts the Sikh farmers. The Punjab leadership is too divided. It is not coming out effectively to help the Uttaranchal Sikh farmers. The interim relief granted by the Supreme Court is not sufficient or final solution of the problem. It is a political problem and needs to be tackled politically.

D S Gill