We read the revered Dalit Voice (Oct. 1 91) of which we are great admirers. We understand your anguish and dissatisfaction that the Sikh leadership has not supported you while you have been supporting the Sikh struggle. (Ref: “Dalit Voice offer to Sikhs” p 10) But there is no overground leadership and there is a vacuum. The overground people i.e. Kalis, etc. are hand-in-glove with the Indian ruling class. Thus, neither we nor you should expect anything from them. The underground leadership, though divided, is busy in armed struggle and has, perhaps, no time or occasion to think of a media of their own. In Punjab, it is next to impossible to start a paper to highlight the problems of the Sikhs because of the law of the jungle prevailing here. Because of the undeclared censorship over the Sikh papers, no journalist dares to come out.
You must be remembering Sukhdev Singh, journalist (president of the PHRO), editor of “Dignity” weekly at Chandigarh, and he ended in a six-month detention in jail along with you in Chandigarh jail. Because you were not a Sikh and influential, you could get out of the jail.
You have termed the publication of the PHRO, The Fourth Estate as Fifth column; as a shabby booklet. Had you been living in this part of the sub-continent, it would not have been possible for you to bring out the Dalit Voice, what to say of the “shabby booklet”. The Sikhs are passing through tremendous wakeful times.
Need of the hour is media: We fully agree that the need of the hour is a media for the Sikhs, the worst persecuted people under the Brahminical empire. The Kalis, the sham reservationists embracing the Russian agents (communists), are all for power, position while the dedicated underground leadership is, at present, fighting for their survival unable to start some newspaper though several proposals seem to be on anvil. I would request you not to be displeased with the Sikh masses for the follies and mischief of the so- called conventional leadership.
Mischievous Item: There is another mischievous item on page 11 by some State – inspired correspondent. He knows that the Dalit Voice is a powerful paper which is supporting the Sikh cause. The headline says “Dalits killed by Sikh militants”. The Sikhs can never be anti-Dalit. It is our religion; it is our creed and it is our baptismal pledge. You cannot admire a person who helps the enemy in a struggle. May he be, his friend or a relative. Police informers, liquor-vendors, extortionists etc. are being killed by the militants in retaliation; this is a truth. This report from your Calcutta correspondent about Punjab (more than 1,000 miles away) is very mischievous. He has written that Dalits were killed in Punjab because they refuse to change their religion to Sikhism. He does not know that the Dalits about whom he is writing were already Sikhs by birth.
He has mentioned Malkiat Singh’s name among the killed by militants. Does he know that this Malkiat- Singh’s name has been given thrice in the item and” the man is not a Dalit, though he was a BSP candidate. And 70% candidates of the BSP in Punjab were not Dalits. Most of them were Jat Sikhs.
I would request you not to be led astray by the news items inserted and planted by the Brahminical agents.
Please keep the flag flying for the Sikh struggle as usual, irrespective of the delusions etc. about the proverbial Sikh leadership.
We want to assure the Sikhs and all the persecuted peoples of India that our support for their human rights struggle shall be continued. We support all human rights struggles for self-determination as expected of all followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Father of India. Babasaheb lived, worked and died for this very cause that was dearest to his heart and also to our heart. What forced to us come out with this piece, “Dalit Voice offer to Sikhs” is the serious financial crisis facing us. We have everything – a world- wide virile readership, a committed, sincere cadre in different parts of India to work for DV and tremendous flow of articles, reports, letters and other communication. What we lack is advertisement which is the only source of income that can keep a publication going. So, for mere want of funds if DV were to close down that will be a great tragedy that will break our hearts. And that will end up the one and only revolutionary experiment in Indian journalism to counter the Brahminical toilet papers that are poisoning the country. Faced with such a grave threat, we wrote that piece as a warning to our suffering Sikh sisters and brothers – EDITOR
