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Advocate Phoolka Speaks on the Struggle for
Justice in India
WSN Network
 San Antonio, Texas: On the evening of 15
June 2007, Sikh Research Institute (SikhRI) hosted the Senior
Supreme Court Advocate of India, Harvinder Singh Phoolka, at Trinity
University in San Antonio, Texas. Phoolka shared his twenty three
years of experience fighting for legal justice against the
perpetrators and for the victims of the anti-Sikh pogroms which took
place in November of 1984.
The program started with a video presentation summarizing the Sikh
faith and anti-Sikh efforts of the Indian government during 1984 and
beyond. The video presented the genocidal killings which took place
since 1984 as well as many important citations from global news
media, several reputed authors, and international human rights
organizations.
Phoolka spoke for an hour, giving the history of ten government
commissions and committees; he also spoke about efforts toward
filing cases against the political leaders responsible for the
carnage in Delhi in November 1984. He highlighted the political
interests which fueled the anti-Sikh pogroms as well as other
incidents such as Muslims killed in Bombay in 1993 and Gujarat in
2002, pointing out that after all these situations, elections were
preponed to benefit the party in power. It took a long time before
any cases filed against political leaders were ever considered, and
even the high court was manipulated to dodge accusations and avoid
any prosecution of political leaders, such as Jagdish Tytler, Kamal
Nath, Sajjan Kumar and H.K.L. Bhagat. None of the aforesaid persons
have successfully been prosecuted. Harkirtan Singh, who attended the
lecture, commented that it was, “The closest you could get to the
twist arm politics of the Indian government. It is a real insight
for anybody trying to make a difference.”
Following the lecture, Phoolka took questions from the audience. He
discussed cases against police officers identified by a retired
bureaucrat and went over reasons as to why the June 1984 attack on
the Sikh nation and psyche occurred. Although, the most pressing
question from the audience was concerning what the community can do
and what is asked of us. Phoolka stressed the importance of
providing an education to the victims, in particular the children
left without fathers as a result of the carnage in November 1984.
The biggest hope for these survivors is to ensure their education,
which can be done through Gyan Sewa Trust (www.gyansewa.com).
Harinder Singh, executive director of SikhRI, then spoke about
different opportunities for people to contribute to solutions. There
is always the importance of spreading knowledge about what happened,
but also, those with the willingness can create legal task forces to
help victims file cases. People interested in international legal
work are encouraged to contact Ensaaf (www.ensaaf.org) or other
international human rights organizations. Efforts toward preventing
similar events, whether it is in Panjab or Darfur, are all
important. SikhRI is working with the Nanakshahi trust (www.nanakshahi.org)
on the project Virsa, a digitization initiative. Nanakshahi will be
digitizing all of Phoolka’s documentation related to November 1984
pogroms; you can support that work through donations. All of these
donation links are available at SikhRI’s donation page (http://www.sikhri.org/support/gifts.asp).
GP Singh, SikhRI’s President, made the closing statement and
expressed the audience’s impression with the speaker, Phoolka. He
stressed that Phoolka, at the age of twenty-nine, had the courage to
stand up to the Indian government and fight for thousands. Following
the event, Izhaarbir Singh, a student of Texas A&M, said, “A role
model for Sikhs today, Sardar Harvinder Singh Phoolka will be an
inspiration for generations to come.”
(For more details, contact Jotroop Kaur 512.300.7777)
20 June, 2007
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