US court summons Congress party on 1984 riots case

[Tronic]

US court summons Congress party on 1984 riots case​

NEW YORK: A US court has issued summons to India's Congress party to answer charges of "conspiring, aiding, abetting and carrying out organized attacks on Sikh population of India in November 1984."

The US district court for the southern district of New York issued the summons on Tuesday in a class action law suit filed by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a US based community group along with several Sikh survivors of the 1984 attacks.

The compliant against Congress alleges that in November 1984 the "organized killing" of Sikhs took place only in states where Congress was in power, according to SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

According to the government of India's record a total of 3296 Sikhs were killed while a total of 35,535 claims for deaths and injuries were received throughout India, he said.

But "The gravity, scale and specially the organized nature of these attacks was concealed by the Indian governments' portraying them as 'November 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots of Delhi,'" Pannun said.

These attacks were neither "riots" nor were they confined to Delhi alone. In fact, during November 1984, Sikhs were attacked in 18 states and more than 100 cities of India in an identical manner and the attackers were led by Congress (I) leaders, the complaint alleged.

Indian National Congress, the political party in power then and now, committed the crime of Genocide against Sikhs as defined in Article 2 of UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948, it said.

The government of India, by painting the attacks on Sikhs in November 1984 as "riots" instead of "Genocide" and by failing to punish the leaders of Congress (I), violated its duties under Article 1 the Genocide Convention, Pannun said.

Seeking relief under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) is motivated by an interest in seeking some form of justice for the victims of November 1984 Sikh Genocide, he said.

It will raise awareness to the international community regarding denial of justice to the victims and is a means of holding parties in power accountable for their gross violations of human rights - while also offering the potential to deter future abuses, Pannun said.

The SFJ complaint also refers to the February 2011 discovery of "mass grave" of Sikhs who were killed in November 1984 in Haryana.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ty-on-1984-riots-case/articleshow/7608822.cms



I remember Kamal Nath being summoned before. First time a whole political party has been summoned. Good for them!

 

[pmaitra]

Oh no. The US is again acting the Global Policeman!

There is no doubt those Congress leaders who were responsible for the crimes be punished, but they must be punished by an Indian court in India. In the mean time, why doesn't the US courts, for their part, try to look into Warren Anderson's hiding in the US as a fugitive?

 

[Iamanidiot]

The Congress has a lot to answer and Hartosh singh Bals article in OPEN magazine nicely sums it up

 

[mayfair]

US legal system is the laughing stock of the world- a perfect example why. How thick can one get?

 

[Tronic]

Its been almost 3 decades now yet the 1984 killings have gone largely unpunished. Whether the US courts are right or not, I do not know; but I think it is perfectly deserving of the Congress to be summoned in such a manner. They cannot pretend to hold the moral high ground as they have done in Gujarat but totally cover their eyes to their own blots. Congress deserves to be treated as such.

 

[Ray]

It is none of US' business.

Indian Courts will decide it. The riots were a crime and so it requires justice as decided by Indian courts.

I do not condone the Congress' involvement in the riots, but then I do believe we are a sovereign country with our own laws and not a vassal state of the US.

At best, it could be at the International Court of Justice if someone raises the issue beyond the Indian judicial pale.

Let them (the US courts and the US moral conscience) first decide over the Iraq War genocide where there was no rationale to attack and kill people as also the Guantanamo Bay prisoners, who have not even got a judicial trial and were kept in jail without access to lawyers or courts or even keeping Blacks as slaves and stealing the land from the Red Indians and wiping them out and enslaving them in reservations.

Utter nonsense.

 

[maomao]

US can suck Osama's C@(K.....and shove a Donkey up their A@@.....!!

P.S: We should start summoning them for Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Somalia, El Slavador etc etc etc

 

[Ray]

Notwithstanding my comments at Post # 6, there has to be justice for the Sikhs who were killed.

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

What right does U.S. have to summon a political party of another country to the U.S. to deal with a riot which happend outside the U.S. ?

 

[natarajan]

anyway most of the people brand congress as secular but it is most communal party,from brahmin riot for gandhi killings,anti sikh riot,ipkf in srilanka and ignoring deaths of tamil nadu fishermen in the hands of sl navy.A pm when he gets his post he will promise to safeguard each and every citizen of india but forgets in a moment.Even narendra modi was denied visa by usa but unforunately none of us here opposed that move.

 

[Ray]

I am no votary of any political party for good reasons.

Notwithstanding, the IPKF was not a decision prompted by communal reasons and instead was a decision prompted by strategic reasons.

There were nation who were eyeing the Trincomalee Harbour for their own strategic reasons and hence India had to act.

The fact that India no longer indicates strategic vision, is for all to see wherein China and Pakistan has made inroad in Sri Lanka.

As far as Modi being denied a visa, the grant of visa is the sovereign right of the Nation being visited and cannot be contested. At best it could could be termed as an act in poor taste diplomatically on the part of the US.

 

[The Messiah]

Leaving aside the accusations who are the yanks to summon anyone from India ? they can suck on shit!!

whether it is congress or bjp or anyone the courts of this country will decide what to do.

 

[tarunraju]

Just so we're clear, it's a US court summoning Congress Party because some 1984 survivor Sikh US citizens sued it. It's not that US is trying to play watchdog here.

 

[Tronic]

whether it is congress or bjp or anyone the courts of this country will decide what to do.

They haven't done much, and as time goes by, the perpetrators of the acts also get off the hook. The story has been well buried, just like the mass grave of Sikhs recently discovered in Harayana. The US courts are summoning Congress after Sikh survivors, now US citizens, of the Delhi "riots" sued the party in the US. These chaps have been banging on the gates of the Indian judicial system, yet to hardly any avail, so it was only natural to go to other options which they saw; and in this case, it was to the US judicial system. This is only coming after almost 30 years waiting on the Indian judicial system to act, and their subsequent failure to do so.

 

[mayfair]

They haven't done much, and as time goes by, the perpetrators of the acts also get off the hook. The story has been well buried, just like the mass grave of Sikhs recently discovered in Harayana. The US courts are summoning Congress after Sikh survivors, now US citizens, of the Delhi "riots" sued the party in the US. These chaps have been banging on the gates of the Indian judicial system, yet to hardly any avail, so it was only natural to go to other options which they saw; and in this case, it was to the US judicial system. This is only coming after almost 30 years waiting on the Indian judicial system to act, and their subsequent failure to do so.

The fact remains that US law has no jurisdiction or locus standii in this matter. The petition should have been thrown out on these grounds alone. Of course the court can direct the US government to assign INC and their select leaders are human rights violators, seize their assets etc. But they do not have any legal authority to judge over what happened in a sovreign country over 25 years ago.

 

[Tronic]

The fact remains that US law has no jurisdiction or locus standii in this matter. The petition should have been thrown out on these grounds alone. Of course the court can direct the US government to assign INC and their select leaders are human rights violators, seize their assets etc. But they do not have any legal authority to judge over what happened in a sovreign country over 25 years ago.

The US courts have jurisdiction over such matters brought to them under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

 

[mayfair]

The US courts have jurisdiction over such matters brought to them under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

It doesn't matter what jurisdiction US courts think they have or have been granted by US laws. Indian law grants no such allowance to US courts to interfere in the legal domain of the Indian justice system.

 

[amitkriit]

It doesn't matter what jurisdiction US courts think they have or have been granted by US laws. Indian law grants no such allowance to US courts to interfere in the legal domain of the Indian justice system.

Victims of 1984 riots deserve justice, and it doesn't matter how the justice is delivered. If India's state and judicial system cannot guarantee justice to common people of India, then the "rest of the world" does have the moral obligation to intervene, we are sharing the same planet.

US can pull a few levers to make Congress(I) suffer a bit, at least financially. But the main culprits will still remain at large.

 

[mayfair]

Victims of 1984 riots deserve justice, and it doesn't matter how the justice is delivered. If India's state and judicial system cannot guarantee justice to common people of India, then the "rest of the world" does have the moral obligation to intervene, we are sharing the same planet.

US can pull a few levers to make Congress(I) suffer a bit, at least financially. But the main culprits will still remain at large.

That's codswallop. Moral obligations come into play when you have the moral high ground. The rest of the world is hardly swimming in a sea of Utopian exudate that they have the right to lecture us. US can pull a few levers such as freezing the assets of Congress leaders in the US, imposing travel restrictions on them and so forth. That is their right. However, they have no right to summon Indian citizens for acts committed on Indian soil against then Indian citizens, who now maybe American citizens. We have our legal system for that, even if flawed.

Victims of 1984 riots deserve and must get justice, in the framework of the Indian legal system, like all citizens of this country. American cannot and will not be the arbiter in this matter and they should bugger off.

 

[Tronic]

It doesn't matter what jurisdiction US courts think they have or have been granted by US laws. Indian law grants no such allowance to US courts to interfere in the legal domain of the Indian justice system.

They will not enforce their judgement beyond the borders of the USA but the US courts can punish the Congress, taking into account any assets the Congress Party holds in the US, as they see fit.