[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 24, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E203-E204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SIKHS PROTEST INDIAN REPUBLIC DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 24, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, on January 26, India celebrated its Republic 
Day, the anniversary of the adoption of its Constitution. Now if it 
would only live by that constitution.
  The Council of Khalistan organized a successful protest outside the 
Indian Embassy here in Washington. While India celebrated, minorities 
are being killed. India has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, 
over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims, and 
tens of thousands of other minorities. There are tens of thousands of 
political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. These include 
over 52,000 Sikhs, a study from the Movement Against State Repression 
showed. That doesn't sound like a republic to me.
  People came to the protest from all over the East Coast. They chanted 
slogans like ``Khalistan Zindabad,'' ``Long live Khalistan,'' and many 
others. They educated the public about the repression of minorities in 
India while the attendees at the Ambassador's party celebrated India's 
freedom.
  We salute India's freedom, but it is time that these benefits 
extended to everyone within its borders, not just the Brahmin elites 
and their friends. It is time for the repression to end and for the 
minorities to live in freedom too.
  Mr. Speaker, this kind of repression is unacceptable in any country, 
but especially in one that proclaims itself democratic.
  Perhaps they feel that this repression is necessary to hold the 
country together, since India is not a single nation but many nations 
thrown together under one banner, much like the Soviet Union or the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire. History shows that such nations cannot long 
survive.
  Now I know you're wondering what America can do to help. We should 
uphold and support the principle of self-determination for all people. 
The right to self-determination is the cornerstone of democracy.
  The time has come to end our aid to India so that all the people 
there can enjoy the glow of freedom. The best way to secure the 
blessings of liberty for everyone within India's artificial borders is 
to stop aiding the tyrants who oppress them with U.S. taxpayer dollars. 
The other thing that we must do, Mr. Speaker, perhaps equally 
important, is to take a stand for the essential right of self-
determination by putting this Congress on record in support of a free 
and fair plebiscite with international monitoring on the question of 
independence for all the minority nations of the subcontinent. This 
will ensure them the opportunity to enjoy the full rights of free 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, the Council of Khalistan issued an outstanding press 
release on its Republic Day protest. I would like to insert it into the 
Record at this time for the information of my colleagues and the 
public.


                                         Council of Khalistan,

                                 Washington, DC, January 26, 2004.

             Sikhs Protest Indian Genocide on Republic Day


 Demand Freedom for Sikh Nation of Khalistan. No Democracy for Sikhs, 
                      Christians, Muslims, Others

       Sikhs from around the East Coast demonstrated in 
     Washington, D.C. today to protest the ongoing genocide 
     against the Sikh Nation and other minorities by the Hindu 
     fundamentalist, terrorist Government of India. They raised 
     slogans of ``Khalistan Zindabad'', ``India out of 
     Khalistan,'' ``2-4-6-8, India is a Fascist state,'' and other 
     slogans.
       India's Republic Day celebrates the day in 1950 when India 
     adopted its Constitution. But what India calls ``Republic 
     Day'' is Genocide Day for the minority peoples and nations of 
     South Asia. The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 
     Sikhs since 1984, more than 300,000 Christians since 1948, 
     over 85,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, and tens of 
     thousands of Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, Dalits, and others. 
     The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's 
     murders of Sikhs ``worse than a genocide.'' According to a 
     study by the Movement Against State Repression, 52,268 Sikhs 
     are being held in illegal detention as political prisoners 
     without charge or trial. Some of them have been held since 
     1984!
       ``India is not a democracy for Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, 
     and other minorities,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, 
     President of the Council of Khalistan, which leads the Sikh 
     Nation's struggle for independence. ``The rights guaranteed 
     in the Indian constitution are not enjoyed by non-Hindus,'' 
     he said. ``While India celebrates, Sikhs and others are 
     dying,'' he said. ``Is that something to celebrate?''
       Christian missionary Joseph Cooper was expelled from India 
     after a mob of militant Hindu nationalists allied with the 
     Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), a pro-Fascist organization 
     that is the parent organization of the ruling BJP, beat him 
     so severely he had to spend a week in the hospital. In 2002, 
     2,000 to 5,000 Muslims were attacked in Gujarat while police 
     were ordered to stand aside, reminiscent of the 1984 Delhi 
     massacres of Sikhs. Indian newspapers reported that the 
     government planned the Gujarat massacre in advance.
       Indian police arrested human-rights activist Jaswant Singh 
     Khalra after he exposed their policy of mass cremation of 
     Sikhs, in which over 50,000 Sikhs have been arrested, 
     tortured, and murdered, then their bodies were declared 
     unidentified and secretly cremated. He was murdered in police 
     custody. His body was not given to his family. The police 
     never released the body of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht 
     Gurdev Singh Kaunke after SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered 
     him. Ghotna has never been brought to trial for the Jathedar 
     Kaunke murder. No one has been brought to justice for the 
     kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra.
       ``It is good that American pressure has forced India and 
     Pakistan to talk about Kashmir,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``But the 
     atrocities still continue. Khalistan, Kashmir, and all the 
     nations of South Asia have the right to self-determination,'' 
     he said. ``In a democracy, you cannot rule the people against 
     their will.'' On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared 
     its independence from India, naming its new country 
     Khalistan. On December 5, Dr. Aulakh met President Bush. ``I 
     am aware of the Sikh and Kashmiri problem,'' President Bush 
     told him.
       History shows that multinational states such as India are 
     doomed to failure. Countries like Austria-Hungary, India's 
     longtime friend the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, 
     and others prove this point. India is not one country; it is 
     a polyglot like those countries, thrown together for the 
     convenience of the British colonialists. It is doomed to 
     break up as they did. India is ruled by Hindu theocrats whose 
     agenda is ``Hindu, Hindi, Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra,'' or total 
     Hindu domination of every facet of Indian life. An Indian 
     Cabinet minister said that everyone who lives in India must 
     be a Hindu or subservient to Hindus.
       Sikhs ruled Punjab until 1849 when the British conquered 
     the subcontinent. Sikhs were equal partners during the 
     transfer of power from the British. The Muslim leader Jinnah 
     got Pakistan, the Hindu leaders got India, but the Sikh 
     leadership was fooled by the Hindu leadership promising that 
     Sikhs would have ``the glow of freedom'' in Northwest India. 
     The Sikhs took their share with India on that promise.
       ``Democracies don't commit genocide,'' Dr. Aulakh said. 
     ``Only in a free and sovereign Khalistan will the Sikh Nation 
     prosper. In a democracy, the right to self-determination is 
     the sine qua non and India should allow a

[[Page E204]]

     plebiscite for the freedom of the Sikh Nation,'' he said. 
     ``India should also allow self-determination in Christian 
     Nagaland, Kashmir, Assam, and the other nations fighting for 
     freedom to bring peace to South Asia.''
       ``As Professor Darshan Singh, a former Jathedar of the Akal 
     Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not for Khalistan, he is not a 
     Sikh','' Dr. Aulakh noted. ``We must continue to press for 
     our God-given birthright of freedom,'' he said. ``Without 
     political power, religions cannot flourish and nations 
     perish.''

                          ____________________