Dal Khalsa raises 'shrinking freedom' under Modi regime at UN

An overseas delegation of radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa has raised the alleged shrinking of space for dissent and freedom of expression in Punjab, since the Modi government came into power in 2014, with the United Nations.
The delegation met with Christine Chung, Human Rights Officer, Asia Pacific region at Geneva yesterday, Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh told reporters.
"The objective of the meeting was to share our history and heritage with the United Nations to provide a thorough understanding of the perspective in which we make our present demands before it. We highlighted the contentious issues concerning the future of Punjab and its people," he said.

The delegation apprised the world body that ever since the Modi government came into power in 2014, space for dissent and freedom of expression has shrunk and hate-mongering and war-mongering was the order of the day, the spokesperson said.
The memorandum submitted by Dal Khalsa UK and Swiss chapter heads Manmohan Singh Khalsa and Prithpal Singh blamed the Indian state for "trampling of rights, tainting Sikhs, meddling in religious affairs, legally and illegally looting our natural resources like water and crushing dissent through detentions and police fear."
The hardliner Sikh body also took a dig at UN bodies for doing very little in India and almost negligible in Punjab.

"It will not be wrong to say that we are the backwaters of the world - a no man's land where the international community is afraid to put its feet on," the memorandum stated.

Anticipating that the Supreme Court judgement on the vexed Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal matter on March 28 will be "against the riparian rights of the people of Punjab", the memorandum submitted by the party explained in detail the background of how "the government of India has systematically looted the water resources and how the ghost of SYL canal has cropped up again to haunt the people of Punjab."

The radical outfit also discussed the drug menace crippling the northern state.
"The memorandum stated that Punjab was sitting on an epidemic of drug abuse with clear complicity of politicians and state police, as drugs are easily available," the spokesperson said.
Referring to the decision of the newly formed Punjab government under Captain Amarinder Singh about the setting up of 'Commission of Inquiry' to look into police excesses over the last 10 years, the delegation told the UN official that the development "vindicated their stand that successive governments have been victimising political opponents and dissenters.