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Fighters decide pen mightier than AK-47
WSN Bureau
Chandigarh: As armed rebellion in Kashmir, Manipur,
Nagaland and Panjab is on the ebb, activists from these war-torn
areas assembled in Chandigarh to force the right to
self-determination on 8th December to commemorate World
Human Rights Day. Organised by the Dal Khalsa, the seminar saw the
participation by activists from these areas and the notion of coming
together oozing from all corners of the jam-packed room.
With ethnicity as the core issue, one after the
other, speakers emphasized the need to pursue the right to
self-rule. Setting up a co-ordination committee to regularly focus
on the deteriorating human rights situation was the achievement of
the day. The issue of death penalty too was discussed and a
moratorium on capital punishment in India was sought.
The father figure of
the human rights movement in Panjab, Justice (retd) Ajit Singh Bains
reiterated the role of the Ninth master, Guru Tegh Bahadur in
spearheading the human rights thought. He said that, “working for
human rights means, working for the rights of people with whose
ideology you do not agree with.” This is what Guru Tegh Bahadur did
when he laid down his life for another community’s right to
religion.
Senior Advocate and
author of "When A Tree Shook Delhi", Harvinder Singh Phoolka
Advocate spelt out that the state was the biggest terrorist when it
kills innocent people and does not pursue the cases judicially. He
said that the experiments with state terrorism made in 1984 have
been repeated ad nauseam in other parts of the country. The
impunity enjoyed by politicians and the police has become so gross
and flagrant that it has almost become a hopeless situation.
Sharing experiences
about his recently released first book, he said that there is no
doubt that the pen is mightier than the AK-47. In his inimitable
never say die spirit, he highlighted the unbiased role of civil
society and independent-minded citizens as the key to stopping the
wanton mass violence in the country. As his wont, Phoolka did not
stop at merely alluding to the problem. He enumerated many steps as
solutions. The police and administration should be made accountable
and the judiciary must expedite the judicial process. Political
interference must be buried.
Prof. S.A.R Geelani
of Delhi University in his brilliant Urdu diction adequately dwelt
on his travails as a convict on the death row and demonstrated the
inadequacy of the criminal justice system in dealing with not only
his case but that of Afzal Guru, who is presently on the death row.
Prof. Geelani, an expert in Arabic literature said that his
popularity with students provided him solace and fortitude in the
wake of protests against him and his co-accused by the right wing
Bharatiya Janta Party.
Er. Ghulam Rasool
Dhar, General Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
and leaders of the All Party Hurriyat Conference Haqeem Abdul
Rasheed and its Human Rights wing head Mohammed Ashraf Lone,
Advocate dwelt at length on the issue of freedom for the people of
Kashmir. It was interesting to note that some leaders desire
annexation to Pakistan whereas others yearn for complete freedom for
Kashmiris. Haqeem Rasheed called for humanism as the core issue for
all social and human relations.
Mr. Joyson of the
Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights decreed the manner in which
Indian and Burma delineated the international borders in the early
fifties, annexing parts of Nagaland. He mentioned that the people
of Nagaland are reeling under the jackboots of the Indian state
machinery.
Dal Khalsa leaders
Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib and Harcharanjit Singh Dhami elaborated on
the struggle in Panjab and avowed to fight for a separate Sikh
state. Navkiran Singh appealed to activists from all organisations
to ensure continuity in coordination, not allowing the seminar to be
yet another exercise in observing another Human Rights Day.
12 December, 2007
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