[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E65-E66]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CHRISTIANS THANKS SIKH IN INDIA: DR. GURMIT SINGH AULAKH COMMENDED

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 30, 2001

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, on January 17 a group of 
Christians in India known as the Persecuted Church of India issued a 
statement commending the protection that Sikhs have provided to 
Christians in India from Indian government persecution.
  Father Dominic Immanuel appeared on Star News to thank the Sikhs 
community for protecting Christians from Indian government persecution. 
As you know, the Christians in India have undergone a wave of violence 
and terror by militant Hindu nationalists associated with the pro-
Fascist RSS, the parent organization of the ruling BJP. This violence 
has taken the form of church burnings, rape of nuns, murders of 
priests, and attacks on Christian

[[Page E66]]

schools and prayer halls. Graham Staines and his two little boys were 
burned to death in their jeep while they slept. Earlier, in 1997, 
police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire. No one has 
ever been punished for these activities. Instead, there have been 
Indian officials who have been quoted as saying that everyone who lives 
in India must either be a Hindu or be subservient to Hinduism. Last 
year RSS leader Kuppa Halli Sitharamaiya called for a ban on foreign 
churches.
  Interestingly, the article mentions Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, the 
President of the Council of Khalistan, for his lobbying efforts here on 
Capitol Hill. The Sikhs and Christians are suffering from the same kind 
of terror. More than 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the Indian 
government since 1984, according to Inderjit Singh Jaijee's ``The 
Politics of Genocide''. The Indian government has also killed more than 
200,000 Christians in Nagaland. According to Amnesty international, 
there are about 50,000 Sikhs held in Indian jails as political 
prisoners without charge or trial. In November, Indian police with 
heavy sticks called lathis attacked 3,200 Sikh religious pilgrims at a 
railroad station on the Indian-Pakistani border. These pilgrims were 
attempting to get to Nankana Sahib in Pakistan to celebrate the 
birthday of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak. Only 800 managed to get to 
the celebration. In July, police arrested Rajiv Singh Randhawa, the 
only witness to the September 1995 kidnapping of human-rights activist 
Jaswant Singh Khalra, while he was trying to give a petition to the 
British Home Minister in front of the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh 
shrine that the Indian government brutally attacked in June 1984. Mr. 
Khalra was killed in police custody about six weeks after he was 
kidnapped. More than five years later, no one has been punished. Now 
the Indian police are harassing the only witness. In March, according 
to the findings of two independent investigations, the Indian 
government murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithi Singhpora.
  In addition to its persecution of Christians, Sikhs, and other 
minorities, India has worked aggressively to thwart several U.S. 
foreign policy goals around the world. Not only does it vote against 
the United States at the United Nations more often than any country 
except Cuba, but in 1999 the Indian Defense Minister led a meeting with 
the Ambassadors from Iraq, Cuba, Libya, Russia, Serbia, and China in 
which the parties discussed setting up a security alliance ``to stop 
the U.S.''
  We should stop U.S. aid to India until the oppression of Christians, 
Sikhs, Muslims, and other minorities ends and human rights are 
observed. We must also put the United States on record in support for 
the freedom movements in Khalistan, Nagalim, Kashmir, and the other 
nations seeking their freedom from India, through a free and fair 
plebiscite. That is the democratic way and the way that world powers do 
things. These measures will help bring peace, freedom, stability, 
prosperity and dignity to all the people of the subcontinent.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit a statement issued by the 
Persecuted Church of India that discusses the efforts that Sikhs have 
made on behalf of India's Christian community. I commend this statement 
to anyone who would like to better understand the plight of minorities 
in India.

Persecuted Church of India--January 17, 2001--the sikhs rush to protect 
                             the christians

       A few days ago when the attacks against the Christian 
     missionaries in Rajasthan took place, Fr Dominic Immanual 
     went on record on Star News to acknowledge the protection 
     that the Sikh community was providing to the persecuted 
     Christians of Haryana and elsewhere. That was a belated 
     recognition to the much maligned Sikh minorities. We had 
     earlier reported the incidents wherein the nuns were 
     protected by the Sikhs at the time of attacks. However almost 
     all the cases have gone unreported. Fr Dominic did great 
     justice to the Sikhs when he underlined incidents in rural 
     Haryana where the helpless Christians had none to help but 
     the Sikhs during the attacks by the Hindu fascists. He quoted 
     the incidents in Panipat, Sonepat and Gannore where the 
     Christians have been saved by the Sikhs, many a time risking 
     their own lives as the Hindu terrorists struck. The 
     recognition is too little for the community whose plight was 
     ignored by the Christians as they too had been under the 
     influence of the Hindu nationalist lies against the Sikhs.


                   THE LEGACY OF SADHOO SUNDER SINGH

       Sadhu Sunder Singh was one of the greatest Christian 
     missionaries India has known. Punjab, more particularly the 
     districts like Ludhiana has a considerable concentration of 
     Christians. The Sikhs themselves have been victims of Hindu 
     majoritarinism and ethnic cleansing. A vast number of their 
     youth had been annihilated in the anti-Sikh riots and fake 
     encounters. Thousands of innocent Sikh youth are persecuted 
     in jails as undertrials. The anti-Sikh crackdown saw the 
     flight of thousands of Sikhs abroad. When the recent wave of 
     anti-Christian persecution started, at least one Christian 
     bishop recognized the injustice done to the Sikh minority by 
     the Christians. Bishop Philipose Mar Chsysostem, the Mar 
     Thoma Metropolitan, wrote that it was due to our apathy 
     during the earliest atrocities against other (minorities) 
     that this danger has befallen us. The community which we did 
     injustice to has now become our saviors. In fact Gurmeet 
     Singh Aulakh, the Sikh leader in the U.S. was one of the 
     first persons to lobby against the Christian persecution in 
     the U.S. Congress by the Hindu fundamentalists.


                         THE ANTI-SIKH MOVEMENT

       One of the reasons for the insurrection in Punjab was the 
     attempt by the Hinduists to brand Sikhism as a part (or 
     panth) of Hinduism. The RSS went on to call the Sikhs 
     ``Kesadhari Hindus''. History says that the no Sikh 
     participated in the drafting of the Constitution, and as they 
     were away, the Hindu nationalists branded them as ``Hindus''. 
     The governments finally accepted the independent identity of 
     the Sikhs apart from the Hindus. Recently the Hindu 
     majoritarians revived the old tension by once again branding 
     the Sikhs as part of Hinduism. The Sikhs are idol-haters and 
     do not liked to be linked to it's worship forms. The Sikh 
     community warned with one voice that any attempt by the 
     Hinduists to carry the Guru Granth Sahib to the temples will 
     be met with stiff resistance. The tension in Punjab has 
     increased manyfold due to the upsurge in the activities of 
     RSS, VHP and the Bajrang Dal. There are reports of the 
     raising of a Bajrang Dal army of 30,000 cadres from Punjab. 
     As per an article that appeared in the Hindu, the Bajrang Dal 
     is giving fierce arms training to their cadre. They have the 
     blessings of the rulers of Delhi. The formation of the new 
     organization Rashtriya Sikh Sangatana (RSS) by the Rashtriya 
     Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have angered the Sikhs and this has 
     once again brought most Sikhs to a single platform. The 
     majoritarian ambitions of the Hindutva forces in Punjab are 
     sure to lead to doom.


                               Conclusion

       At this instance we can only pray for peace in Punjab. We 
     pray that good sense prevails with the majoritarians and they 
     do not do anything harmful to the interests of the nation. We 
     also thank the valiant but unsung Sikh heros and heroines who 
     have and are risking their own lives to save the defenseless 
     Christians in Haryana, Punjab and elsewhere from the 
     atrocities of the Hindu organizations.

     

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