A role model - Jaswant Singh Khalra

Akashdeep Singh · #1 (**permalink**) 24-Nov-2006, 14:55 PM

Jaswant Singh Khalra – a role Model

Khalsa ji,

"Soora so pehchaniye jo ladai deen ke het
purja purja kat mare kabhi na chade khet"

"The Knight is only he, who fights for the cause of the poor and helpless. He fights in the battlefield for justice and does not retract even if he is cut into pieces limb by limb"

So true are these words when said for a great Sikh like Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra. He fought for the sake of human rights of thousands of families whose young sons [age 15-35 years] had been abducted by authorities in Punjab and they never returned back, not even their dead bodies were found. He knew he will also be killed by police as he was trying to expose their atrocities and human rights violations, but he still fought. He kept struggling till he was killed as well by the police and thrown away in a river.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/hard-talk/14636-a-role-model-jaswant-singh-khalra.html

Short Biographical Sketch: Jaswant Singh Khalra (1952 - 1995) was a bank employee in Amritsar, Punjab. During his time there were unstoppable human rights violations being committed by authorities in Punjab (India) under the influence of the central government from New Delhi. It was normal for the police to abduct innocent Sikh youth from their houses and murder them and later burn their dead bodies declaring them "lawaris" (means there is no known kin of the dead person or the claimer of the dead body). Disturbed by these violations against human rights Jaswant Singh Khalra decided to research and find out how many such youth had been murdered by the authorities in Punjab and find out the names of the youth who were killed for no reason.

Introduction: On September 6, 1995, the Punjab police abducted, tortured, and murdered human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra because he exposed the disappearances and killings of thousands of Sikhs by the Punjab police. In his last speech made to a Canadian audience in April 1995, released with subtitles by Ensaaf, Jaswant Singh Khalra discusses his investigations into the disappearances and his readiness to die to expose the truth about these crimes. Khalra pinpoints KPS Gill, then Director General of Punjab police, as the person in charge of the systematic abuses perpetrated by the Punjab police, and discusses the standard responses made by Gill to cover-up the mass secret cremations. Khalra further describes his struggle before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for accountability for these mass state crimes.

Jaswant Singh Khalra's last International Speech

The following is the English version of the last international speech given by Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra:
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=14636

“Feeling the warmth in the refuge of the Guru who identifies with Truth, O beloved of the Guru: The Khalsa belongs to the Waheguru, and so too the victory. There is a fable that when the Sun was setting for the first time, as it was completing its journey, light was decreasing. Light was decreasing, and the signs of Darkness were appearing. It is said, lamentation was rife amongst the people that the Sun will set, Darkness will spread, no one will be able to see anything. And what will happen to us? Everybody was worried, but the Sun did set. In order to show its strength, Darkness set its foot on the earth, but it is said – far away in some hut, one little lamp lifted his head. It proclaimed, “I challenge the Darkness. If nothing else, then at least around myself, I will not let it settle. Around myself I will establish Light". And it is said, watching that one Lamp, other lamps arose in all other huts. And the world was amazed these lamps stopped Darkness from expanding, so that people could see. I believe, today when Darkness is trying to overwhelm Truth with full strength then if nothing else, self-respecting Punjab, like a Lamp is challenging this Darkness. And I pray to the Guru, who identifies with Truth, to keep this light lit.

I have come to this country on a specific mission – it is a very small mission. You people have chosen a large mission as today’s agenda but mine is just a small part of it. And this agenda is of Human Rights; please give me a small part within human rights. I have come to Canada to talk about a report. That report describes the story of oppression of the past ten years. When we started that report, we had before us hundreds of reports, but there was one question to which none of those reports provided the answer. That question was: Thousands of mothers await their sons even though some may know that the oppressor has not spared their son’s lives on this earth. But a mother’s heart is such that even if she sees her son’s dead body, she does not accept that her son has left her. And those mothers who have not even seen their children’s dead bodies, they were asking us: at least find out, is my son alive or not? Those sister’s brothers, Those sisters were awaiting their brothers with rakhris in their hands. We stopped some of our sisters from leaving their homes [for marriage], because the boys to whom they were engaged, the boys they were going to marry – the police had picked them up and we did not know what happened to them. It’s our tradition, that our daughter now [after engagement or marriage] belongs to him, but we don’t know if the will come [for her] or not. When we started working on this issue, we first collected statistics on how many sons, how many brothers, how many husbands, and how many children have disappeared. But when we started talking about this issue, then countless mothers, countless sisters weren’t ready to say that their loved one has disappeared. They said, “Son, if you take this issue further and our son is still alive, they will kill him – don’t talk about this, we are not going to tell even you.” So we produced a rough estimate for the public that in Amritsar district alone, 2,000 children are missing and the government must tell us where they are. The government was quiet. Then, we filed a petition before the High Court on behalf of some families, asking the Court to tell us where those children are. The government then gave an affidavit denying any knowledge about these children.

When the issue progressed, then the person in-charge of the oppression, KPS Gill said in a press conference in Amritsar, “These Human Rights Wing folks are not doing anything on human rights. They have one motive, to prop up their agenda, so that there is no peace in Punjab. They are ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence] agents and are hatching a conspiracy to discourage the police machinery to re-incite militancy.” KPS Gill went onto the extent of saying, “I’ll tell you where those kids are.” He said, “These kids are in Europe, in Canada, and in America, where they are earning their daily wages. And these human rights organizations are telling us that thousands of kids have disappeared.”This was a challenge to us. This was a challenge to that truth which we sought to bring forward. Then, brothers, in order to bring this truth to the public, accompanied by evidence, we put ourselves on an arduous task where we had to confront various dangers. But we went there where our brothers had gone. We went to the cremation grounds. We went and asked the employees there just tell us this much that during this time, how many dead bodies did the police give you? Some said we burned 8-10 every day. Some said there was no way to keep an account; sometimes a truck full of bodies came, and sometimes 2-4 dead bodies. When was said we need an account, they told us we could get the account from one place: “The police gave us the dead bodies, and the municipal committee gave us the firewood.” Because the municipal committee’s policy is that if they receive an unclaimed body within the city, then the city’s municipality will cremate it on its own expense. So then, Guru’s Beloved ones, through Divine’s grace we found the way. We went there and saw the full accounts of our disappeared brothers written. What we saw when we reached there were records of how much firewood was issued daily. It was written how many dead bodies were left by the police officers. And when we went beyond that, it was also recorded which Head Police Officer brought how many dead bodied there. And beyond even that, it is said that when one gets too arrogant, we say he has forgotten Almighty, and he takes such actions that he does not even know that these actions will expose the truth about him. Or how we say colloquially – the robber leaves his marks behind. Similarly, these robbers left so many marks that we were shocked that in Amritsar district’s 3 municipal cremation grounds, 6017 dead bodies were clearly recorded as the dead bodies of Sikh youth between the ages of 15 and 35 years. And our brothers were not the only ones recorded in that list; women’s dead bodies were also recorded. And we were shocked that the records included the dead bodies of the elderly, even if it was only a small percentage. And there, the dead bodies of our mothers were also recorded. There we found the dead body of Mata Gurmej Kaur, the mother of Baba Manochahal. There, we found the dead body of Bibi Mohinder Kaur, who gave birth to Paramjit Singh Panjwar. And there we found the body of Harminder Singh Sultanwind’s uncle Baba Piara Singh.

So brothers! when we received this truth, we went to that country’s High Court. We knocked on the doors of Punjab and Haryana High Court, and asked, Oh Oppressors!, at least give us the detail that which dead body belongs to whom so that we can tell each mother, sister, so we can tell each father. So they can say their prayers to Almighty which they have been keeping in their heart, “Almighty, please let my son rest at your feet.” This is our tradition we ask for a son by praying to the Almighty, we say final farewell to our family members while praying to Almighty to give them refuge. When we made this request to the High Court, that we don’t need anything, but at least tell us which home’s precious diamond [child] you have burned, in which cremation ground and when. The law says that the photos of an unclaimed dead body must be kept. The law says that the clothes of an unclaimed dead body are preserved until the survivors claim them. But that country, that calls itself the largest democracy and lover of justice, its High Court told us, “This is not public interest litigation. This creates a huge issue. Instead, do this - Send to us each of that family to whom the dead bodies belong and we will give them the information.” A mockery has been made of the law. A mockery has been made of the Sikh nation. And a mockery has been made of those people, who are not asking for anything other than a death certificate. Because we asked the High Court for information on the identity of the dead bodies of our brothers, the judges are telling us back to only approach the Court about the dead bodies of those people for whom we already have information. This is the answer that the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave us. If desired, we will go to the Supreme Court now. If desired, we will try another legal action. But the biggest court of all is the people’s court and we want to go to the people’s court on a worldwide level and say to the world, “You have called us terrorist. You have called us communalists. But those whom you have called the prophets of democracy, recognize their reality and then tell us who is ultimately the terrorist and how is righteous?” We can say often that we have suffered much oppression. But we have not had the practice or training of keeping a complete record of that oppression. About 50,000, about 1 million – we say all of that. The educated people of the world do not trust that, they need exact figures. And for that, I also say, that you all should unite on this issue. This issue is not just the issue for those families [who have suffered loss of their children killed unlawfully by police]. This is the [Sikh] nation’s issue, humanity’s issue. You all should present this issue, in whatever way you can. Condemn that government, that machinery, that justice system, and tell the truth to people. Please Brothers! Help us in this work. So my brothers, pray to the Guru that truly we maintain our self-respect. We must safeguard the duty for which we [the Khalsa] were created and earn the pleasure of the Guru. We ask the Guru for everything, without fear we ask the Guru for that one gift. The Guru has many gifts, but what is the greatest gift the Guru has? The greatest gift is not of milk, its is not of a son and now the Guru does not even pass on the Guruship to anyone. The Guru cannot make any saint guru now. When the Guru gave the guruship to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Guru kept one special gift which any Sikh could take. And after the time of the [Ten] Gurus, Sikhs paid so much respect to that special gift. And that special gift, which the Guru possesses, is the gift of martyrdom. Those who receive this gift – they don’t get to be Guru, but after the Guru, they are the most respected people of our [Sikh] nation. I hope – I am not a political leader, who could give you some political line or pull a political antic – from a human rights platform I will definitely say this to you: the Khalsa was created to protect the human rights, the human rights of the world. And if you cannot protect your own human rights, you will not be able to give any definition of the Khalsa to the world. I request you all, please don’t just learn how to take from the Guru, learn how to fulfill the instructions given to you by the Guru as well. That will encompass everything: you will obtain all joys. With these remarks, join me in the victorious greeting: “The Khalsa belongs to the Waheguru, and so too the victory.”
--( Late Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra)

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And what happened??? This true Khalsa achieved martyrdom fighting for the justice for the sake of thousands of families whose young children had been abducted, killed and burned in cremation grounds by declaring them “unclaimed dead bodies” by the police under the instructions from the central government. This was last international speech by Jaswant Singh Khalra. He was abducted by the police and then later tortured and killed. There were witnesses of the kidnapping of Khalra by police, there were witnesses who named KPS Gill as the person who interrogated Jaswant Singh Khalra at then DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) A. S Sandhu’s house, there were witnesses who told KPS Gill was present at the time Jaswant Singh Khalra was murdered but the Courts in India declared KPS Gill innocent by saying, “There is lack of evidence”.... What kind of judiciary is this?

Why did Jaswant Singh Khalra choose this path? Didn't he have the intelligence? Didn’t he know that the police will pick and kill him with no regrets?

Did all the culprits responsible for abduction and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra get punishment? Did this human rights advocate who was fighting for the human rights of others, himself get his human rights? Why not? Why the masterminds of his murder never god punishment? .........What kind of Khalsa are we??

My salutes to Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra, the Sikh panth is indebted to him. We need to respect and remember the great Sikhs like Jaswant Singh Khalra and not the fake babas that most of the people are praying like gods in Punjab.

“Oh kee kari jana e, kyun mari jana e
Aven na bujurga diyaan ijjataan uchchal oye
Pagadi sambhal jatta, pagadi sambhal oye”

Sat Shri Akaal.
-Akashdeep Singh
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References:-

Vikramjeet · #2 (**permalink**) 25-Nov-2006, 01:55 AM

I am indebted to this great martyr.

May waheguru give us all streangth ,courage and honesty similar to this great khalsa.

Also my salutes to his wife, I am impressed by her courage and sacrifice. Her qualities are clearly visible in her interview in the link provided in the referrences of this article.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=14636

Vikramjeet

Navdeep Singh Sandhu · #3 (**permalink**) 28-Nov-2006, 06:49 AM

Truly Jaswant Singh Khalra was a man of great honour who stood up against injustice.

Keep up the gud work Akashdeep.

Akashdeep Singh · #4 (**permalink**) 11-Dec-2006, 13:42 PM

Thanks for kind words Navdeep Singh ji and Vikramjeet Singh ji,

-Akashdeep

bscheema · #5 (**permalink**) 07-Jan-2012, 13:00 PM

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG_vpLRDT-Q