New Delhi
The Left parties and Sikh organisations in Punjab have jointly condemned Indian government’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and divide it into two Union territories, a report in The Wire said.
The development is much significant as these organizations spent three decades at odds with each other over militancy Punjab. “Various democratic organisations of Punjab decide to stand in solidarity with the people’s movement of Kashmiris,” stated a joint press statement of 15-odd organisations of Sunday protest march in Chandigarh.
“We will stand tooth and nail against any move of the Modi regime’s agenda of Hindutva that it is spreading in the name of ultra-nationalism, putting the lives of Kashmiris at stake now,” Lachhman Singh Sewala, General Secretary of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, an offshoot of CPI-Liberation, said. “The vested forces earlier tried to divide the people of Punjab on communal lines during the days of militancy, when the men from the security forces as well as from amongst the boys spearheading the movement had died in thousands,” he added.
Eleven organisations from Punjab, under the banner of ‘Solidarity Committee for Kashmiri National Struggle’, have even come out in favour of the “right to self-determination of the Kashmiris”.
“Reach Chandigarh on September 15,” read posters carrying pictures of pellet-ridden and bandaged Kashmiri children. “Come out and dare to support the Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-determination and against the occupation and repression of Indian rulers,” read another.
The committee’s 11 constituents include the Punjab Students’ Union, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Pendu Mazdoor Union (Mashal) and different Left-leaning industrial workers’ bodies.— KMS
