Dal Khalsa asks Hollande to intervene for liberty of Sikhs, Kashmiris

Srinagar, January 24, 2016 (PPI-OT): Sikh organization of Punjab, the Dal Khalsa, has urged French President Francois Hollande, who is on a visit to India, to impress upon the Indian leadership to uphold the liberty of the Sikhs, Kashmiris and other struggling peoples. Hours before the French President landed on Punjab soil to preside over the country’s Republic Day functions in Delhi on January 26, the Dal Khalsa shot off a memorandum to him informing that for the Sikhs and other minority peoples, this was a day of deceit and assimilation as Indian leadership backed off from all its promises and subsumed their exclusive national identity and aspirations under the jackboots of Indian imperialism.

Releasing to the media, the organization highlighted in its letter that since last 4 decades, Sikhs were struggling to regain Punjab’s sovereignty through right to self-determination. Welcoming him to Chandigarh the capital of Punjab, the organization stated that it’s their firm belief that in this day and age there is a crying need to reopen historic Sikh-French relationship. Dal Khalsa communiqué addressed to French president was e-mailed to French Ambassador in India on Saturday afternoon.

It was released to media here on Sunday. Sharing their perspective on Indo-French ties and the status of Sikhs and other nationalities in the Indian sub-continent, the letter reads that undoubtedly, the changing geo-political situation in South Asia and the emerging economic and commercial market of land of the millions –India has prompted a sea-change in the perspective of western powers on this country and its present leadership.

Elaborating further, the Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwar Pal Singh said “Sidelining human rights and political rights for commercial interests was a major cause of concern not only for Sikhs but all ethnic minorities that once banked upon the support of western powers including France.”

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