[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 137 (Saturday, September 28, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INDIA DENIES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 27, 1996

  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, an editorial from the March 1996 issue 
of the Sikh Review was recently brought to my attention. This editorial 
details reports showing India's ongoing efforts to crush the Sikh 
religion. In India the Sikhs and other religious minorities are 
subjected to the same brutal policies.
  The article, which I will introduce into the Record, discusses the 
Indian regime's effort to ``normalize'' the Sikh people. That is, as 
the article puts it, ``a term that has become a euphemism for 
destroying their culture and lifestyle, in cynical disregard of the 
democratic principles of plurality and coexistence.'' This kind of 
ethnic cleansing was our justification for our involvement in the 
Bosnian conflict. Why are we continuing to look the other way when 
India is involved?
  I am introducing the March 1996 editorial from the Sikh Review into 
the Record.

                           A Dangerous Slant

       This is not a parable. Recently, a group of distinguished 
     intellectuals, motivated by ordinary humanity, wrote to the 
     President of India pleading for the release of several 
     hundred Sikh youth detained without trial for as long as ten 
     years. The silence in Rashtrapati Bhavan was deafening. In 
     disgust, the memorandum was released to the Press coinciding 
     with Human Rights Day, Dec. 11, 1995. The effect was even 
     more silence.
       Silence has its uses in statecraft. As the Indian poet, 
     Vikram Seth has said: ``Ten hostages is terrorism; A million, 
     and it's strategy'' (The Golden Gate).
       Prolonged detention of the Sikhs is part of strategy. Nazi 
     Germany had another name for it: The Final Solution.
       How many of us have noticed that the government tourism 
     department has, for over a decade, withdrawn all pictures and 
     posters of the Golden Temple? Airport lounges, railway 
     station waiting rooms, secretariat corridors, coaches of 
     Rajdhani Express, even ante-rooms of Indian embassies abroad 
     are singularly bereft of pictures of Sikh historical places. 
     The model of the Golden Temple at Amritsar's rail terminal 
     was smashed by Hindu zealots many years ago. This is 
     apparently a part of the deep seated strategy to downplay the 
     Sikh religion and culture. Those who attended the Vishwa Sikh 
     Sammelan in Amritsar were struck by the weird black-patka-
     wearing commandos of the Punjab police crawling all over the 
     holy city, not because India's textile mills have stopped 
     manufacturing cloth for turbans--the ceremonial headgear!
       In this grim strategy, the Press--vernacular as well as 
     English--has become a willing tool of the government. Their 
     method is simple: Do not project the Sikh in a positive 
     light. Exaggerate every minor fracas. Underplay the Sikh 
     identify. Depict the patit Sikh on the idiot box as the 
     stereotype. Boost the un-Sikh practices. Highlight factional 
     fights over gurdwaras. Deny kirpan-wearing passengers seats 
     in airlines and railways. The list seems endless.
       Thanks to economic liberalization, NRI is an honoured guest 
     in India, a sort of prodigal son. Not so the Sikh NRI. He is 
     earmarked by the Indian Embassies in the West for special 
     treatment. No wonder so many of them dropped out of the 
     Amritsar conference. The other day an Indian businessman was 
     denied visa by Saudi Arabia to visit Riyadh on the ground 
     that he professes Sikh religion. Government cannot be 
     bothered with such petty aberations. Constitutional 
     guarantees are, after all, so much paper.
       The press in India, in most cases, owned by ultra-
     conservative Hindu businessmen often suffers from an 
     overwearing sense of self-righteousness where the Sikh 
     minority is concerned; How dare the Sikhs claim an 
     independent religious identity? They must be taught a lesson. 
     Simply brand them anti-national! No wonder these newspapers 
     are natural allies of government and its gargantuan power 
     machine. One good turn begets another. Unburdened by moral 
     scruples, the newspapers lend all support to the government 
     to undermine Sikh values.
       We give, in this issue, a few instances of this insensitive 
     attitude of the national Dailies, The Tribune, Chandigarh. 
     The Hindustan Times, New Delhi and The Statesman, Calcutta. 
     The malady has, however, become chronic and endemic. Readers 
     will surely recall the disdainful manner in which the newly 
     elected Parliament under Rajiv Gandhi on Jan 2, 1985 ignored 
     the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi even as it mourned the dead of 
     the Bhopal gas tragedy. Election posters of the party in 
     power had then depicted the Sikh taxi driver as a potential 
     terrorist--ignoring his reputation for honesty and bravery. 
     Even the cartoonist Abu Abraham had, more in malice than 
     satirical humour, made a caricature of a saintly Sikh holding 
     a transistor bomb. The Doordarshan, which had blacked out the 
     savagery of Oct. 1984 as a non-event, let its cameras linger 
     balefully over the victims of transistor bombs which shadowy 
     anti-socials had planted in Delhi bazars. When The Telegraph 
     published, on May 5, 1986, a photo of a Sikh youth in police 
     custody the caption proclaimed: ``A terrorist being taken 
     away'', ignoring the elementary rule that no one can be so 
     labelled except when convicted by due process. We had written 
     to the Editor, Mr. M.J. Akbar, who did us the courtesy of a 
     reply: ``I accept your point. In fact, I had pointed out the 
     error to our (The Telegraph) people. I hope you understand 
     that there was not deliberate malice. . . .''
       More recently, The Times of India was less penitent. It 
     published on April 12, 1995, a report that the house of union 
     home minister, Mr. S.B. Chavan, in Nanded had been ``attacked 
     by five men, four of them Sikhs.'' The ever-vigilant Rear 
     Admiral (Retd.) Satyindra Singh lodged a protest with Press 
     Council of India which drew the Times Editor's attention to 
     the council ``Guidelines'' that the Press must avoid 
     identifying the community of a person involved in crime. The 
     newspaper took more than six months to publish a luke warm 
     apology on Dec. 6, 1995. This is typical of a newspaper that 
     had been known for its anti-Sikh slant dating back to Girilal 
     Jain's vituperative writings that included his editorial 
     ``De-turbaning of Sikhs'' in 1982.
       As a minority religion, Sikhs have been under fierce 
     pressure from the media and their mentor, the government. Far 
     from showing an understanding and sympathy for their 
     religious and cultural tradition, they have vowed to ``to 
     mainstream'' the Sikhs--a term that has become a euphemism 
     for destroying their culture and lifestyle, in cynical 
     disregard of the democratic principles of plurality and co-
     existence.
       Sikhs have no doubt survived challenges down the centuries. 
     However, the ongoing challenge is far more insidious. It 
     calls for what Guru Gobind Singh termed Gyaneh-ki-badhni, the 
     scythe (sword) of wisdom. Our choice is clear. Let us stand 
     up--not succumb--to the hostile machinations. Let us not 
     abandon God and the Guru for the glittery tinsel of a modern 
     state. Let us hold our head high in honour. Five hundred 
     years ago Guru Nanak admonished the tyrannical rulers ``Koorh 
     phire pardhan, ve Lalo''. The German philosopher, Emmanuel 
     Kant later predicted that eventually a just world order would 
     come about either through intellectual and moral insights or 
     through the experience of chaos. Unless Indian polity makes 
     the right choice, its slide into chaos is but a matter of 
     time.

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