"We look forward to collaborating with our census partners and other Sikh organisations and institutions to address the unanticipated challenges of the 2020 Census," he said. "With the 2020 census approaching, many historically undercoded communities will be at-risk for being under-counted and under-served," said Ruben Singh, United Sikhs Census Manager. The United Sikhs has advocated for the separate coding for more than two decades and filed commentary with the US Federal Register advocating for Sikhs to be added as an ethnic group, in large part, so that action can be taken to address major Sikh issues such as bullying, intimidation and hate crimes against the community. Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social activist.Sikhs meet the criteria for representation in the US Census as a distinct ethnic group and have a distinct unified appearance, culture, language, food and history. He also speaks about the caste bias in our media and how the media ignored the real facts and how the SC-ST officers faced the punishment instead of the real criminals. This conversation was recorded about three years back at the Delhi residence of Shri Joseph Maliakan. One thing is clear that India cannot become a powerful nation as long ethnic, caste and religious identities are used to frame and punish people. As a nation and society, we need to understand how long we will allow ourselves to bear such things. Very similar happened in Gujarat 2002 and the real issues are forgotten in the political manipulations and blame games. We all must hang our heads in shame for our collective responsibility in saving innocent lives. Important to understand when the state abdicated its responsibility the result was mayhem and anarchy. We saw the anguish, pain and tears in his eyes when he narrated this story to us. An extremely important voice of sanity and reasoning. It has many more details about the media and how it functions. This conversation was conducted at his home in Delhi. He appeared before many Commissions of Inquiry. He was the first and most authentic reporter who reported the massive massacre of Sikhs at Trilokpuri. As per his own narrative, his editors initially refused to believe the story because of the magnitude of barbarism and deaths but he stood by his report and it became one of the most sought after information during that period. Media had no clue but it was courageous Joseph Maliakan who reached the place and witnessed the horrific crime. Trilokpuri in the Eastern Delhi had a thick population, a majority of whom were poor as well as Economically Poor Sections of society. It was one of the worst massacres, if I can say, that India saw in post independent India. The state completely abdicated its responsibility with Delhi police actively supporting the goons in targeting the innocent Sikhs and their localities. Frankly speaking, it was not merely Congress but the party that time became the ‘identity’ of ‘Hindus’ and Sikhs were made the biggest villain being accused of celebrating Indira Gandhi’s death by distributing ‘laddus’ and so many things.Įvery Sikh was accused of conspiring, enjoying and a suspected Khalistani. Once she was officially declared dead at the 6 pm All India Radio bulletin, Delhi had already witnessed a scene of horrific crime with the goons of the ruling Congress party led by senior leaders campaigning against Sikhs. Though the incident happened at around 9 am in the morning, the nation was kept on the hook till 6 pm with no information being made available to people on All India Radio and Doordarshan. Mrs Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31st, 1984 at her official residence in Delhi by her own security guards, who happened to be Sikhs. Joseph Maliakan is a veteran journalist who worked with Indian Express at the time when Delhi was burning in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Share on WhatsApp Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Telegram Share on Reddit Share on Email