Dal Khalsa has greeted US Sikhs for official state recognition to Baisakhi as festival

Amritsar, April 7: Dal Khalsa has greeted Sikh Americans for success in their endeavour to gain official state recognition of Baisakhi -the Khalsa Sajna Diwas as the festival of the Sikh people, which is likely to be a precursor to the declaration this festival as Sikh National Day after the Sikh National Day parade on April 8.

Dal Khalsa President Harpal Singh Cheema and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh have said that this acceptance will surely help in stopping the continuing harassment and killings of Sikhs in hate across the US.

They further congratulated all the 100 Gurdwaras and institutions led by the Sikh Coordination Committee and the US Sikh Caucus who made this possible. This was a landmark in the Sikh journey towards official acceptance of the distinctiveness of the Sikh people.

The passing of a motion in the Ontario state parliament calling the mass killings of Sikhs in 1984 as genocide is a welcome step, they said. After 33 years of struggle for justice by Sikh advocacy groups, the international community has slowly started accepting the role of the Indian state in engineering the pogrom executed through masquerading mobs of lumpen elements let loose under a systematic plan with full support of the police and the then political leadership.

Hailing the efforts made by MPP Harinder Malhi and MPP Jagmeet Singh, they said the adoption of motion and acceptance of mass killings as genocide is a big rap on faces of those who are still shamelessly dubbing it as riots.

Dal Khalsa strongly condemned India-sponsored NGO namely ‘Canada India Foundation’ that unsuccessfully attempted to create hurdle in moving the above motion by MPP Harinder Malhi by dubbing the motion as ill-conceived and divisive.