Lajpat Nagar
The procession continues! Tonight’s public meeting was a roaring success.
The photo exhibition was on display in the Singh Sabha Gurudwara. There was a spirit of solidarity as people milled about viewing the photos, signed the petition, and conversed animatedly.
Jarnail Singh enthusiastically conducted the meeting. He introduced the president of LRS, Raghavan who then addressed everyone and congratulated everyone present for showing support to this important campaign. He said that there is a need for a law that will be binding on everyone, irrespective of their position and wealth. He said that the ’84 genocide had been deliberately and wrongfully misrepresented as a “riot” saying that a riot takes place spontaneously between two groups of people while the ’84 massacre was engineered by the state in cold blood. Only the state has the means and machinery to organize killings on such a large scale. He said that if the guilty of 984 had been punished quickly then the killings after the dmolition of Babri Masjid would not have happned. The 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat would not have happpened. But instead of the guilty getting punished, they were promoted to Ministerial posts. he concluded that if we struggle unitedly and without let-up then we will achieve our goal of getting the guilty punished severely and getting an effective law passed to prevent sch occurences in the future.
Then Jarnail Singh spoke about the experience of the Sikhs and recited verses from the Granth Sahib calling on all Sikhs to cast away all fear and join the struggle for justice. He said that only by being courageous could one be a true Sikh!
After him, Sucharita Basu spoke on behalf of Purogami Mahila Sangathan and narrated her own experiences of the fateful 3 days. She spoke with sincerity and passion and called on everyone to denounce the perpetrators and demand justice as was their right!!
Shri Phoolka said that LRS had always been in the forefront of the struggle for justice. He recalled the yearly candlelight vigils of the Sikhs for the victims and said that LRS members always attended in greater numbers than even the Sikh community members. His words reminded everyone that the struggle of our Sikh brothers and sisters is the struggle of every Indian fighting for a better tomorrow, it is the same struggle as that of the victims of the Gujarat and the Babri Masjid riots, it is the same struggle as that of our people in the Northeast, these are all our struggles! Let us strengthen each other and fight for justice and democracy!!
