Editor - Pawan Kumar Gupta
New Delhi
Meeting on the 41st Anniversary of the 1984 Sikh Genocide
A meeting organised by Lok Raj Sangathan along with several other organisations at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on 2 November 2025, condemned state-organised communal violence and state terrorism, demanded the revocation of draconian laws such as UAPA and NSA, and opposed the divisive politics of the ruling establishment.
The meeting marked the 41st anniversary of the gruesome 1984 Sikh genocide, which unfolded in the capital and other Indian cities from 31 October to 3 November 1984. Participants carried placards with slogans such as “Down with State-organised Communal Violence and State Terror!”, “Punish those guilty of organising the genocide of Sikhs!”, “Punish the organisers of communal violence of 1992, 2002, 2020 and others!”, etc.
Speakers emphasised that this heinous attack on the Sikh community was led by top leaders of the Congress Party, which was in power at the time, and had the active support of the state machinery. It was not a spontaneous riot but a carefully planned pogrom, organised days or even months in advance. The genocide has left indelible scars on the collective memory of our people. While the loss of thousands of innocent lives remains unforgotten, the calls for justice continue to be ignored. Despite multiple commissions of inquiry exposing the breakdown of command responsibility at every level, no meaningful action has been taken by successive governments.
Participants reflected on how the use of communal violence for political ends has continued in the decades since. While the Sikh community was targeted in the 1980s, both Sikh and Muslim communities are being targeted today. The right to conscience is under attack, and acts of violence such as lynchings have become common. A disproportionate number of people from these communities languish in prisons under fabricated charges. Speakers also condemned the removal of lakhs of marginalised voters in Bihar under the SIR process, and the targeting of Bengali-speaking Muslims as so-called “illegal immigrants.” Such measures, they said, reflect a dangerous trend of state-backed communal polarisation aimed at diverting people’s anger away from pressing issues like inflation, unemployment, illiteracy, and malnutrition. By keeping people divided, the ruling powers ensure the continuation of a system that denies justice and equality to the majority.
Sucharita of Lok Raj Sangathan conducted the meeting. Welcoming the participants, she drew attention to the fact that Lok Raj Sangathan and several other organisations, including all those present today, have been organising actions on this day every year, for the past 41 years, demanding that those guilty of such monstrous crimes against our people should be held accountable and punished. However, political parties of the ruling class, which have taken turns to manage the central government, have collaborated in unleashing communal violence and in ensuring that the guilty are not punished. Pointing to the continued practice of state organised communal violence and terror, the systematic targeting of people on the basis of their religious beliefs, the incarceration of innocent youth opposing the divisive politics of the rulers, the terrorisation of Bengali speaking people, etc., she emphasised that the genocide of November 1984 cannot be forgotten; instead we must draw the right lessons from it and advance the struggle to put an end to such state-organised communal violence and terror.
In his address, S. Raghavan, President of Lok Raj Sangathan, said that the events of November 1984 were not a spontaneous reaction but a planned genocide in which over 10,000 Sikhs were killed. Despite the evidence presented before numerous commissions, the guilty remain unpunished. He recalled that India’s ancient traditions—from the Mahabharata and Arthashastra to the Tirukkural, Guru Granth Sahib, and Qur’an—have all affirmed that the foremost duty of the state is to ensure the safety and prosperity of its people. Yet, he said, the Indian state has failed this duty. The principle of command responsibility has been violated; those at the highest levels of power were not punished but rewarded. Referring to the thousands of people incarcerated in jails without any proof of guilt, he pointed out that the Indian state has violated the natural law that all persons are innocent until proven guilty. He stressed the need to strengthen the unity of the people and advance the struggle to build a new political process in which such state-organised communal violence will be impossible.
Salim Engineer of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind observed that such a large-scale genocide could not have taken place without the direct involvement of the government. He said that the partition of the country on communal lines in 1947 has been followed by systematic sowing of communal hatred, which continues to persist today. He expressed hope that one day the guilty would be punished. He emphasised that this is not an issue confined to one community, but a reflection of the system of justice itself, where the guilty are rewarded while victims continue to suffer.
Muid Hashmi of the Social Democratic Party of India described the genocide as part of a wider political conspiracy to destroy and divide communities. He called for intensifying the struggle against the criminalisation of dissent and announced plans for a “Jail Bharo Andolan” with specific demands, including the punishment of those responsible for mass violence.
Com Sheomangal Siddhanthkar of the CPIML-New Proletarian urged people to come out on the streets to oppose and challenge the ruling powers, stressing that elections alone would not change the class character of power. He said that the plan of the ruling class is to capture and retain power by dividing the oppressed, and called for building unity to defeat the politics of hatred.
Deepak Dholakia of Citizens for Democracy linked communal violence to the very nature of capitalist rule. He pointed out that innocent people have been jailed for years without trial and called for the creation of a common platform to unite people’s struggles.
Dr. SQR Ilyas of the Welfare Party of India said that the ruling class does not work for the wellbeing of all people and that dividing society along communal lines has long been their method of rule. He drew attention to recent developments such as the CAA–NRC, manipulation of electronic voting machines, and voter list deletions, which he described as forms of state terror. He criticised the use of draconian laws like UAPA and NSA to silence dissent and urged people to organise against state repression while defending the rights of workers and democratic values. He said that the judiciary’s claim that ‘bail will be the norm and jail the exception’ has been violated.
Birju Nayak of the Communist Ghadar Party of India said that people are not communal by nature. Communal violence and terror are favourite weapons of the ruling class, to smash the unity of our people against their exploitative rule. All the political parties that have come to power in the past 41 years have worked to subvert justice. He pointed out that the state has failed to protect its citizens, and that a mere change of ruling party will make no difference. He called for the creation of a society in which the right to conscience and the right to life, dignity and security will be guaranteed to all its members.
Mukesh Aseem of the IFTU Sarvahara remarked that a riot could be stopped within half an hour if the state wished to do so, but in 1984 it was allowed to continue because it was pre-planned by those in power. He said that brutality has only increased over time, and that there is no true democracy for working people today. Only the struggle of the oppressed classes, he emphasised, can eliminate communal violence.
Other speakers, including Harishankar Sharma of TUCC, Dayal Singh, and representatives of Muslim women’s organisations, condemned the continuing attacks on minorities and stressed the need for unity, vigilance, and resistance to state-organised repression.
The meeting renewed the call to end state-organised communal violence, to hold those in power accountable, and to demand command responsibility for every act of organised mass violence. Participants demanded that the government establish institutional mechanisms to prevent such future occurrences. They reiterated that the ruling establishment’s repeated invocation of the “rule of law” rings hollow when those responsible for mass crimes enjoy impunity.
Participants pledged to carry forward the struggle with a renewed commitment to justice, truth, and solidarity, to ensure that the horrors of the past do not return in new and even more devastating forms.
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