UPDATED: Echoes of New Phases and some Updates

UPDATED: All of a sudden I remembered a video from KPS Gill.  Readers on this site are aware of this murderous sadist, but maybe it is still worthwhile to juxtapose his lies with the findings announced this week.

All of our attention shifted towards Punjab last week.  There was some interesting developments early this week.  One is that Voices for Freedom, a non-government organization, based out of Punjab filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition against the Sukhbir Badal’s appointee for Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Saini.  Saini is a well-known human rights abusers and was involved in the many murders, “disappearances”, and torture during the 1980s and 1990s.  From the media reports, while the petition may not go far, hopefully it does center some more attention on just the type of thugs that the the Badal Mafia appoints.

Another note from Punjab came yesterday when the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India announced that they would pay Rs. 175,000 (about $3,500) to 1,500 families in the Amritsar district for the murder of their sons.  Of course there is no culpability, just an attempt to buy silence.  Well-known human rights lawyer Navkiran Singh of Chandigarh has rightly state:

It is too little too late and why only from Amritsar District? Khalra gave example of Amritsar district, but wanted an inquiry for the whole of Punjab.  Imagine we had to pursue the matter in the NHRC for 17 years for this little justice.

UPDATE: I just wanted again to stress the lies that KPS Gill has restated for years.  See this interview with an Australian journalist, when asked point-blank about the case of illegal cremations, KPS Gill lies without hesitation.  Contrast this where the NHRC admits it occurred and even pays out money to families, though without casting any blame or responsibility.  I have yet to see a true Indian journalist expose KPS Gill for his lies.  Unfortunately they continue to lionize him, assuring that impunity continues – whether in Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Kashmir, and many other regions of South Asia.

Shifting from Punjab, I did want to highlight the dynamism in the diaspora.

@Blighty and @rococo (pagh salute) have highlighted the amazing energies of the UK youth.  Despite claims that generation 2.0 in Canada did not turn out, the Sikh Activist Network and others were successful in popularizing an #iPledgeOrange campaign, as well as protesting Jonathon Kay’s article, attempting to portray Sikhs as “extremists.”  Sikh-Canadian youth, of all walks of life, flooded Kay’s twitter account with their messages, to which even he had to reply:

I gotta hand it to Canadian Sikh activists. They sure know how to marshall the Twitter troops against me and @CBCTerry

— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) March 30, 2012

However, Sikh-Canadians were hardly limited to the online protests.  Many young Sikhs braved the snow to come out and support the Rally for Rajoana.

If there is a particular diasporic community, where the second generation has been quieter, it is the United States.  The Berkeley SSF took a first initiative in starting a critical forum on facebook as well as a website, in addition to helping organize the protest rally at India’s Consulate in SF.  UC Davis is organizing a discussion to be held today and even covered their greens with orange yesterday.  The Jakara Movement has been organizing similar forums on other UC campuses, as well as in the Sacramento and Fresno communities.  Last week, I posted their powerpoint to make it available for anyone that may wish to use it.  These activities must continue!

One especially promising initiative by a Sikh-British youth in starting RajoanaTV.  Here you’ll find episode 3, but click here to see the channel and watch previous episodes.  The young brother was interviewed on Sangat TV this past weekend.

Another activity that is becoming popular are the various petitions.  There are petitions to the Indian Government calling for clemency (I don’t think I’ll bother to link to them, as you can read my previous comments here), there are petitions calling on Jathedar Gurbachan Singh to step down and install Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana in this position (I don’t think petitioners are aware that under the current system, it is not Gurbachan Singh’s call – that choice belongs solely to Prakash Badal), and there are even petitions to Hillary Clinton calling for greater freedom of press in Punjab (I do not know what the petitioners are using as examples.  The Sikh Channel team was briefly detained, but soon released).

I’ll do a more critical analysis this weekend.  The energy must continue, although the forms are beginning to change.