[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 158 (Monday, November 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2309-E2310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INDIAN GOVERNMENT PROMOTES TERRORISM TO UNDERMINE NATIONALISM AMONG 
                          OPPRESSED MINORITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Sunday, November 9, 1997

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have recently been made aware 
of more examples of how the Government of India promotes acts of 
terrorism to discredit legitimate nationalism among the people of 
Punjab, Khalistan, Christian Nagaland, Kashmir, Manipur, and the other 
minority nations that India occupies.
  Rodney Redden is an Australian tourist who was seriously wounded in a 
train bombing that occurred on October 2, 1997, near Delhi, India. As 
you know, the Indian authorities have blamed this bombing on a Sikh 
militant organization called Shaheed Khalsa, which probably does not 
even exist. Even the state-controlled Indian press reported that no one 
had ever heard of this organization until it suddenly emerged to claim 
responsibility for this bombing.
  Another example of India's violent efforts to undermine nationalist 
movements is the recent slaughter of innocent bus passengers near 
Jaluki, Nagaland. The passengers belonged to the Kuki ethnic minority. 
Although this tragic incident serves the useful purposes of dividing 
Manipur, and discrediting the freedom movement in neighboring Nagaland, 
all at the same time. Both States are struggling for their freedom from 
Indian rule. Both have been subjected to mass murders at the hands of 
the Indian Government. For years, these two peoples have lived together 
peacefully. Why should one suddenly decide to destroy the other? 
Apparently, the central government is funneling money to violent 
elements on both sides.
  In the eyes of the Indian Government, there is no such thing as a 
peaceful advocate for Khalistan, a peaceful advocate for a free 
Kashmir, a peaceful advocate for an independent Nagaland, or a peaceful 
advocate for the freedom and national self-determination of any of the 
captive nations of South Asia. To India, they simply do not exist.
  Well, I know two advocates for freedom from the subcontinent. One is 
Dr. Gurmit

[[Page E2310]]

Singh Aulakh, president of the Council of Khalistan. Another is Dr. 
Ghulam Nabi Fai of the Kashmiri American Council. These two gentlemen 
do not advocate violence. They advocate peaceful, Democratic, 
nonviolent struggle for the freedom of their homelands, Khalistan and 
Kashmir. Yet, according to the Indian regime, they are terrorists.
  Mr. Speaker, the people of America and the world, and the fair-
minded, thinking Members of this Congress know better. The truth was 
revealed 3 years ago when the Indian newspaper Hitvada reported that 
the Indian regime paid the late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, the 
equivalent of $1.5 billion to create and then support covert state-
sponsored terrorism, not only in Punjab, Khalistan, but in neighboring 
Kashmir as well. Yes, the country that is one of the five largest 
recipients of United States aid, the country that calls itself ``the 
world's largest democracy,'' paid a public official $1.5 billion to 
foment terrorism so that it could pit the freedom-loving people of 
Punjab, Khalistan, and Kashmir against each other. In view of this 
violent, divide-and-conquer tactic, I would ask the obvious question: 
Who are the real terrorists here? Clearly the real terrorist 
organization is the Government of India.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no reason why the hard-working taxpayers of 
this country should be forced to support this brutal terrorist regime. 
We should cut off all aid to India, declare it a terrorist nation, and 
embrace the freedom movements in Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur, 
Assam, and throughout the occupied, oppressed nations of South Asia.

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