[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
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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department has, for over a decade, withdrawn all pictures and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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