[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INDIAN MINORITIES SEEKING THEIR OWN STATES

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                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 11, 2001

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I was interested in a Washington Post article 
on Sunday, July 8 which reported that all across India, minorities are 
demanding their own states. For example, the article reports that the 
Bodos, who live in the northeast part of India, are demanding a 
separate state of Bodoland.
  This demand underlines the fact that India is not one country any 
more than the Soviet Union was. Much of India's instability can be 
traced to the fact that it is a multinational state thrown together by 
the British for their administrative convenience, a vestige of the 
colonial era. The Soviet experience showed how difficult it is to keep 
such a multinational state together.
  Unfortunately, instead of listening to the demands of the people, 
India has responded by stepping up the oppression of its minorities. 
Instead of listening to the people, the Indian government has killed 
more than 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, over 75,000 Muslims in Kashmir 
since 1988, over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, and tens of 
thousands of other minorities. India was caught by the Movement Against 
State Repression admitting that it held over 52,000 Sikh political 
prisoners under the so-called ``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities 
Act,'' known as TADA, which is one of the most repressive laws in the 
world. TADA expired in 1995. India also holds political prisoners of 
other minorities, according to Amnesty International. In 1994 the State 
Department reported that the Indian government paid more than 41,000 
cash bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs.
  Recently in a village in Kashmir, Indian soldiers were caught red-
handed in the act of trying to set fire to a Sikh temple, known as a 
Gurdwara, and some Sikh homes. This appears to have been aimed at 
setting the Sikh and Muslim residents against each other. Village 
residents, both Sikh and Muslim, came out and intervened to stop the 
soldiers from carrying out this nefarious plan.
  Unfortunately, this is only one recent chapter in an ongoing saga of 
repression of minorities and denial of basic human rights in ``the 
world's largest democracy.'' In India, minorities have seen the 
destruction of the Muslims' most revered mosque to build a Hindu 
temple, the burning death of a missionary and his two sons while they 
slept in their jeep followed by an effort to expel his widow from the 
country, church burnings, the murder of priests, the rape of nuns, 
attacks on schools and prayer halls, the massacre of 35 Sikhs in the 
village of Chithisinghpora, a recent attack on a train carrying Sikh 
religious pilgrims, troops attacking a crowd of religious pilgrims with 
lathis, police breaking up a religious festival with gunfire, and many 
other such intolerant acts.
  In November 1994 the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the 
Indian government paid Surendra Nath, then the governor of Punjab, the 
equivalent of $1.5 billion to generate terrorist activity in Punjab and 
in Kashmir. In India, half the population lives below the international 
poverty line. About 40 percent lives on less than $2 per day. Yet they 
could find $1.5 billion to pay a government official to generate and 
support terrorism. We have programs in our government that don't cost 
$1.5 billion. This is not a small amount of money.
  Mr. Speaker, India has been caught red-handed engaging in domestic 
terrorism against its minorities. This is why they are seeking their 
own states. This is why there are 17 freedom movements within India's 
artificial, colonial-era borders. The minorities are looking for any 
means of protection against the brutal Indian state.
  America is the beacon of freedom, and as an old song from the 70s 
said, ``you can't be a beacon if your light don't shine.'' We must do 
what we can to shine the light of freedom on all the people of south 
Asia. We can do this by maintaining the existing sanctions against 
India, by stopping our aid to India until it stops denying basic human 
rights that are the cornerstone of real democracies, and by supporting 
self-determination for the peoples of South Asia in the form of a free 
and fair plebiscite on their political status. By these measures, we 
can help bring freedom, security, stability, and prosperity to the 
subcontinent and bring America new allies and new influence in this 
dangerous region.

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